Woodside Is The New Tribeca

For laid off Wall Street employees, it’s PBR squared:

But for Ms. Adamski and other young women (they are mostly women) in the glamorous world of New York’s auction houses, the downturn has hidden benefits in the form of a social correction that puts them on more equal footing with their friends working — or formerly working — on Wall Street.

Art professionals said that Ivy Leaguers with master’s degrees typically earn $19,000 for a junior position to $50,000 for a midlevel specialist at an auction house, perhaps a fifth of what peers make working in law or banking. Now, with so many who chose the more lucrative paths unemployed, Ms. Adamski and others say there is less pressure to spend, spend, spend.

“Now we have an even playing field,” said Lydia Wickliffe Fenet, an affable 31-year-old who heads special events at Christie’s and says she has cut back on the number of nights she goes out and is choosing less expensive places. “My friends say, ‘Let’s go have a beer instead of a $40 drink.'”

Brooke Lampley, who is 28 and has been at Christie’s for four years specializing in Impressionism and modern art, said her college classmates who were laid off from their Wall Street jobs now follow more pedestrian pursuits. Most recently some of those friends went to a rodeo.