This picture has been sold at Sotheby's for £14,500,000, so Channel 4 News has just informed us, moments after it happened.

It's a Vermeer, "Young Woman Seated at the Virginals". But apparently it's not a very good Vermeer. Originally she was wearing a different shawl. Dear oh dear.

The thing about the art market is that the price reached by a painting is the price that the second most extravagant art lover in the world on that day is willing to pay, plus a little bit. It takes two, baby.

Vermeer, by the way, is the man whom Colin Firth played in Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has just come out on DVD.

At present it is in Blockbuster for £19.99, I think it was. But it will soon come down.

Two people willing to pay anything to buy a DVD does not a DVD market make. It takes more than two, baby.