Spending in London

From frenzied bidding for art worth £400m to a stampede for fine French wine, London is in the grip of an unprecedented spending spree fuelled by £9bn of City bonuses and an influx of super-wealthy foreigners.
The capital has long vied for the title of the world's wealthiest city but it will this week cement its status as the boom town of a new monied elite with a seemingly unquenchable thirst for conspicuous consumption.
Britain has become a magnet for a select group of high rollers - international billionaires who are choosing London above competitors such as New York and Dubai to make their homes.
Forbes magazine, the bible of the wealthy, revealed that London now has 23 billionaires, including the highest number of non-domiciled tycoons in the world. Together, they have a combined wealth of more than £45bn.
Nowhere is the flood of affluence more clear than in the auction houses of Bond Street, which by tomorrow are likely to have enjoyed the most lucrative sales week in their history.
Works from artists including Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol and David Hockney are being offered by Sotheby's and Christie's and are expected to push takings from the traditional February sales week beyond £400m for the first time.
Sotheby's, which set a record on Monday for its single biggest London auction when one sale took £94.9m, said the results were being fuelled by wealthy Russian and Chinese buyers.