Steven Cohen’s return is good news for auctioneers if no one else

Outlook

It’s hard not to feel prickly about Steven Cohen returning to our shores with a glitzy new Mayfair office. This is a man whose SAC hedge fund in New York was at the heart of one of Wall Street’s most egregious insider-trading rackets. SAC pleaded guilty to fraud charges and paid a record $1.8bn fine.

While Mr Cohen was never personally charged, he was barred from investing other people’s money in what looked to the outside world like a shabby compromise.

Sotheby’s, Christies and others with Giacomettis to shift may cheer his arrival: he is, after all, possibly the world’s richest art collector. But it’s hard to see what the rest of us stand to gain.