With all the bad news in real estate over the past couple years, a June story in the Real Estate section of the Wall Street Journal is, far and away, the best news we've had about housing in a long time. In "Palace of the ‘Salt Queen’ ", WSJ reporter Sara Lin describes the new $1.5 million Manhattan apartment of Bettina Werner, almost certainly the world's foremost creator using the medium of sodium chloride. Lin describes the scene:

“Salt is like a fifth element, it’s so important to life,” says Ms. Werner, a 42-year-old who speaks in a thick Italian accent. “We can’t be alive if we don’t have salt in our bodies.”

Salt is also the star of Ms. Werner’s highly minimalist 2,000-square-foot one-bedroom apartment on the 21st floor of a high-rise building in the financial district. The vast 50-foot-long living room is nearly bare, save for a 10-foot long plexiglass-framed table whose large columns are filled with sparkling crystals and whose top holds another thick layer of salt more than three inches deep.

A life-sized, salt-coated sculpture of a woman stands mutely on a piece of white shag rug near the middle of the loft. The only color emanates from the large wood-framed canvasses all deeply encrusted with salt imported from Sicily and dyed shades of dark red, lime green and aquamarine blue (the red salt painting, called “I swear love,” is on sale for $40,000). Two “dominoes,” ottoman-sized plexiglass cubes decorated with red dots and filled with salt, are off to one side.

Ms. Werner first started experimenting with salt in her art in the 1980s when she studied painting at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Italy. After moving to New York in 1989, she got her big break a year later when she signed a five-year exclusive contract with a Manhattan gallery. French actress Fanny Ardent and Massimo Ferragamo, chairman of design house Ferragamo USA, are among her collectors.

In these recessionary times, she's tried to hold the line on the price of her artworks. "Art watchers also note that most of Ms. Werner’s works sell for less than $50,000, a price point where collectors are still comfortable buying."

How much a ton is that???? See the short WSJ slideshow .

We're fans, and not just of her Facebook page .