ART

The art world remained mystified Monday about the identity of the bidder who paid Sotheby’s a cool $53.9 million for Vincent Van Gogh’s “Irises” last week. Art experts and a leading New York society columnist had thought they had found their buyer in Australian billionaire art lover Alan Bond. But the reports were a lot of bunkum, a spokesman for the tycoon said Monday, denying that his boss bought the masterpiece.