Top Five Really Alternative Investments

3). Arable farmland

Dr. Michael Burry, who predicted the collapse in mortgages and made huge profits for himself and his investors at Scion Capital LLC by betting against subprime mortgage bonds, said in a September 7 interview with Bloomberg News that his current monies were riding on arable farmland properties with water.

Burry’s previous bets against the mortgage bubble, documented in an April Vanity Fair article and in the book “The Big Short” by Michael Lewis, were wildly successful, owing at least in part to his attention to detail and willingness to plod through thousands of documents. Once his strategies began to attract notice from large firms, including Vanguard, he opened Scion. Later he would convince Goldman Sachs to sell him credit default swaps against CDOs he’d researched as primed to fail.

Now he’s turned his attention to real estate once more, this time in the form of actual land–but not just any land: productive farmland with water present on the property–and has devoted a “significant” portion of his portfolio to such assets.

4). Art

Raymond Jamesfounder Tommy James’ art collection is the stuff of legends, with many pieces on display in the halls of the company’s St. Petersburg, Fla., headquarters. Another company swanky enough to adorn its walls with fine art wasn’t quite as successful–Lehman Brothers. In a depressing sign of the times (or reminder of the recent past), Lehman Brothers Holdings is selling off part of its art collection, including works by Gerhard Richter and Maya Lin, in the hopes of returning millions to creditors.

Reutersreports that despite a lukewarm modern art market, Sotheby’s estimates the auction of 160 works in New York on Saturday will yield $10 million. Proceeds of the sale will be used to pay creditors. Many of the pieces up for auction were acquired by asset manager Neuberger Berman, which Lehman bought in 2003. Neuberger re-emerged in 2009 as an independent asset manager.

According to Reuters, the most expensive item up for sale is Damien Hirst’s “We’ve Got Style (The Vessel Collection – Blue/Green),” a series of three cabinets holding ceramic objects that Sotheby’s estimates could fetch between $800,000 and $1.2 million. Other major artists whose work will be auctioned include Andy Warhol, John Baldessari, Richard Prince and Robert Rauschenberg.

5). Rock and Roll Paraphernalia

“I want money, that’s want I want,” sang John Lennon, whose hand-written lyrics for “Imagine” coincidentally sold for $1.2 million in June. Whether it’s Kurt Cobain’s guitar or Jimi Hendrix’s headband, aging baby boomers see value in owning music history. And sometimes, as in the case of Microsoft gazillionaire Paul Allen, they’ll put it on public display. Other recent auction items to help investors stash their cash include:

• ? A gray cotton jumpsuit worn by guitarist Eddie Van Halen for the “1984″ album and number-one single, “Jump.”
• ? One of Michael Jackson’s sofas.
• ? Lennon’s Corduroy boots, well worn.
• ? Elvis Presley’s personal script for the film “Love Me Tender.”

Joyce Hanson and Marlene Satter contributed to this article.