To boom or not to boom

"Auction rooms will be less fun in the year to come than in the year gone by. Throughout 2007, stories of astonishing sales records tumbled out of the press offices of Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Christie’s boasted the highest half-yearly sales in art-market history; Sotheby's claimed the highest global turnover in the company's history “by a wide margin”. Some enthusiastic players in the game came to believe the boom would go on and on. But it can’t, and it won’t."

The Economist on the art market in 2008.

From the press (2)

The Economist - What crisis? (click here)
IHT - The dangerous game of pushing up prices higher and higher (click here)
Art News Blog - Hirst buys Bacon (click here)

Sotheby's stock crashes

A few days ago, Sotheby's had a "disappointing evening". The biggest failure was the buy-in of one of Van Gogh's last paintings. Yesterday, Sotheby's had to announce that it lost $14.6 million on auction guarantees at the sale. Last week's events led to a plunge of the Sotheby's stock.