So, there I was at the Renzo Piano inspired Chicago Art Gallery, face to face with some of the most expensive and splendiferous art in the world.

I stood admiring a marvellous depiction of The Bay of Marseille by my favourite artist: Paul Cezanne and wondered about what it was about the setting that made such settings so pleasing to the human mind. After all it was only an impression of a fairly ordinary bay with water and houses. Yet it was captivating, striking and intensely beautiful.

And the same is true for our love of scenery, of the green of forests, the azure blue of the sky and the turquoise of the sea. In my view, it is this emotional attachment of the human to the prosaic and the common elements of our Mother Earth, that creates value in real estate. After all the settings are just those of trees, sea, soil and sky – fairly ordinary things - yet these are intensely appreciated by the human eye and mind. This is in part what gives real estate its value - the personification of the external elements into pleasurable feelings of admiration from within the human soul. So how can you make a simple setting of houses worth tens of millions of dollars? Put them at Sydney Harbour where tens of millions of people connect with their setting emotionally, or perhaps find a Cezanne in your basement, that “setting” would improve your bank account by $42 million, which you can then use to buy a spectacular view of green and blue at Sydney Harbour.

I found myself pondering for a moment: “Is this art imitating life or life imitating art”? I wonder.