Booming stock market is fueling a mega-billion return to classic art and a backlash to junk

The classics never go out of style.And when it comes to art, the big money is flowing back to that which is tried and true.After a stagnant few years, dealers are once again celebrating big comebacks from old names, with New York auction houses such as Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s drumming up $2.2 billion in sales this fall.Leading the haul, Austrian painter Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” which snagged a stunning $236.4 million at Sotheby’s.

The painting, made between 1914 and 1916, was looted by Nazis and nearly lost in a fire before becoming part of the private art collection of Estée Lauder heir Leonard A.Lauder in 1983.

He died this summer, leading to the sale.Elsewhere, a 1940s self-portrait of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, “El sueño (la cama)” set a record for a sale by a female artist at $55 million last month after a “tense bidding war” between two collectors.A few days before that, Christie’s “20th-Century Art Sale” brought in $690 million, led by a $62 million Rothko work, “No.31 Yellow Stripe” from 1958.

The auction also featured works by John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, and David Hockney.“It was a perfect storm,” Manhattan-based art dealer Helly Nahmad told The Post, explaining why the boom is happening now.“It’s hard to get great art and a lot of it came up for sale in November.”Also, the estates of Lauder, Robert and Patricia Ross Weis and Jay and Cindy Pritzker brought pieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall to the block at just the right time —rich people are more flush with cash than usual.“Over the last four years, the stock market has gone up and disposable income has gone up, but art has not gone up,” one hedge funder turned collector noted to The Post.“We have more billionaires than we have great works of art.

It only takes two people and one work of art for a big check to get written.”Nahmad agrees, saying: “The stock market reached record h...