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Hot art sales may be cooling down

Here are the numbers we're reading and watching for Wednesday.

Pablo Picasso's 'Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) at right and Alberto Giacometti's 'Man Pointing' at left sit in a room at Christie's in New York City. The Picasso masterpiece fetched more than $179 million, smashing the world record for the most expensive art sold at auction. The bronze statue by Giacometti sold for more than $141 million, setting a new record for the world's most expensive sculpture sold at auction.
Pablo Picasso's 'Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) at right and Alberto Giacometti's 'Man Pointing' at left sit in a room at Christie's in New York City. The Picasso masterpiece fetched more than $179 million, smashing the world record for the most expensive art sold at auction. The bronze statue by Giacometti sold for more than $141 million, setting a new record for the world's most expensive sculpture sold at auction.
TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

950,000

That’s how many medical records have gone missing from Centene Corporation hard drives. The company announced that it is currently searching for six specific hard drives that contain the names, social security numbers, addresses, and other information of those 950,000 customers. As BBC Tech writes, Centene says that no payment information was lost, and that free healthcare monitoring would be offered.

50,000

That’s how many hand-written index cards are used to store water records for Flint, Michigan. Alan Roberts, who works for the city, is using the cards to slowly determine which houses in the city are serviced by lead pipes. The tedious process is a reminder of Flint’s bigger problem: how do you replace lead pipes if you don’t know where they are to begin with?

11 percent

That’s how much Christie’s International PLC says sales declined last year — The numbers mark a cooling in what has been a very hot art market. While overall sales were down, the Wall Street Journal points out that several big ticket pieces helped bolster sales figures. Pablo Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O),” for example, went for an impressive $180 million.

$175 million

That’s how much U.S. exports to Cuba had reached by November of last year. But that number may soon grow even larger. Starting Wednesday, U.S. firms can begin offering their Cuban customers credit. The move will likely help normalize trade even further, and bolster business in telecommunication, financial services and healthcare industries.