There are only six pictures of this New York City townhouse but they are a very evocative six pictures. This is the home of Jack and LuAnn Grubman. He's the former lead telecom research analyst for Citigroup's Salomon Smith Barney and as the New York Observer's Manhattan Transfers column puts it, "a star in its telecom investment banking." Grubman ended up banned from the industry amid a scandal involving shady dealings and had to pay a $15 million fine. He may be counting himself lucky now that he got out in 2001-2002 and isn't a Wall Street player today.

It seems that the he managed to squirrel away plenty of money (he did after all have a $30 million severance package). Grubman's home is a neo-Federal mansion built in 1883. The home is a five-story mansion located steps from Fifth Avenue and the Metropolitan Museum. It has been completely renovated and includes a marble entrance hall, iron and bronze adorned staircase, 13' high ceilings in the living and dining rooms with full-height oak paneling and period plaster moldings, an elevator, and an eat-in chef's kitchen that has a dumb-waiter to the butler's pantry off the dining room. There are two planted terraces as well as an ivy-covered south-facing garden. It is listed at $32 million.

Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer has announced his next move since leaving the governorship under the dark cloud of a prostitution scandal. Spitzer's looking to make some dough and instead of writing a tell-all, which might seem the most obvious move, he's going to try and cash in on the country's depressed real estate market. Spitzer is looking to create a "vulture fund" that would buy up cheap real estate and then sell the properties for a profit. It's a more elaborate and grandiose version of the same house flipping dream that got so many people and companies into real estate trouble in the first place.

The NY Sun reports that late last month Spitzer met with high-level Washington, D.C.-based labor union officials at the headquarters of his father's real estate business in Manhattan. Sptizer's father owns several New York properties but his holdings haven't changed much since the mid-1990s and Spitzer is looking to enliven his father's company. He told the officials that he was creating a business plan and wanted the labor officials to consider investing pension fund money under their control. Spitzer is planning to look at projects valued between $100 million and $500 million. There are certainly plenty of struggling real estate developments out there to choose from.

Is collecting art a luxury or an investment? This simple question has some complex repercussions. The Wall Street Journal reports on the legislation sponsored by two senators, Pete Domenici (R., N.M.) and Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) to change the tax treatment of sales of art and other collectibles. The capital-gains tax rate of 28% for the sale of art is quite steep compared with only 15% for the sale of real estate and securities (the rate for real estate and securities was also 28% until two measures reduced the rate). The senators argue that the tax rate is unfair to the art industry and punish those who invest and deal in art. Their legislation is endorsed by both Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses and the Art Dealers Association of America.

Another long-standing issue in the art community is the fact that when artists donate their work to museums, libraries and other nonprofit institutions they are only able to deduct the cost of materials rather than the full fair-market-value deduction on their taxes for their gifts. Talk about a disincentive to donate.

Is the problem that the government does not see art as serious business? The WSJ article quotes Joseph Cordes, professor of economics, public policy and public administration at George Washington University who says that the government is interested in encouraging people to invest in business that stimulate job growth and tax revenue and art doesn't really do that. He also says that reducing the capital gains on art sales might discourage certain collectors from donating to museums.

Those opposing changes to the law say that lowering the capital-gains tax rate would just benefit the wealthy without adding anything to the overall economy. The question may come down to the perception of the art world. Is it simply a luxury for the wealthy or is it an industry that impacts people at a variety of income levels? Part of the resistance to these tax bills may be that in supporting them those in Washington could be seen to be creating another way to help the rich get richer.

When I began writing for Luxist back in 2004 one of the first things I did was pick up a copy of the Robb Report, the magazine for the ultra-rich is one of the standard sources for information on the luxury market. Now the magazine has its own stock index, the Claymore /Robb Report Global Luxury Index ROB. CNN Money reports that Claymore Securities launched an exchange-traded fund on Monday based on an index created by CurtCo Robb Media, publisher of the Robb Report.

The financial reasoning behind this is that companies catering to the luxury market may be a safer bet because spending by the rich is less affected by gas prices or mortgage rates, things that may throw off other consumers. And with luxury spending on the rise in countries like Russia, China and India many of these companies are looking at continue growth. The 42-stock portfolio includes many brands you might expect such as Porsche, BMW, and LVMH.

This follows the news that came out last month that Dominion Group had launched the Chic investment fund which cover 61 designer names and 2,300 brands such as Stella McCartney and Ralph Lauren. After all, if you are going to buy the luxury brands, why not also invest in the companies that make them?