What? Mauve is out?

From a story in the April 13, 2009, New York Times, about burglaries at vacant homes that real estate agents have "staged" - that is, decorated with high-end furniture in an attempt to lure buyers:

“It’s brazen,” said D. J. Grubb, the president of the Grubb Company, a real estate agency based in Oakland. “These are highly aesthetic crimes. The thief seems to be someone with very good taste, somebody who knows that mauve is out.”