As economy cycles, so does the value of its faces

In the offices of the Hennessee Group hang two oil paintings and two prints, each portraying the bespectacled visage of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

"What I should do is make them into a dart board," says Charles Gradante, who with his wife, Lee Hennessee, runs the Fifth Avenue firm that advises investors in hedge funds. "All I see when I look at these paintings are two market crashes, a bear market, and the current economic crisis."

The pictures stay on the wall because of Ms. Hennessee, who remains loyal to the paintings and to the man they portray.

"Wonderful," she says, surveying one canvas. Ms. Hennessee paid $2,500 for the portrait by artist Erin Crowe. She believes the works could grow in value.

The paintings at the center of this husband-and-wife disagreement are artifacts of a bygone era: a time when many Americans thought central bankers were cool, and Mr. Greenspan was the coolest, or perhaps hottest, of them all.