Beware the perils of dabbling in contemporary art

Early in May each year, the art world descends on New York for two weeks of auctions. So what's the news this year? The art market in general appears to be slowing, but the contemporary art sector is the hottest ticket in town.

Early in May each year, the art world descends on New York for two weeks of auctions. These are the most important dates in the art calendar and what happens at them generally sets the tone for the rest of the year. Deborah Brewster in the FT asks what was the message this year? In a nutshell, the art market in general appears to be slowing, but the "flaky" contemporary-art sector is not. Instead, it's the hottest ticket in town.

As evidence, consider the first sale of the New York fortnight - of Impressionist and Modern works at Sotheby's on 3 May. It was a disappointment. Only two thirds of the the works sold, bringing in a mere $91m. Then look at the recent reports out from Sotheby's and Christie's, says the Evening Standard. Both reveal that in contemporary art, the market is back to the levels it hit in 1989, the high point of the greatest boom the art market has ever seen. This kind of market division is a classic sign of a bubble, David Kusin, who has written two books on the global market for The European Fine Art Federation, told the Evening Standard. While a large part of the market is behaving relatively rationally, one specific area is getting out of hand and pieces are selling for prices that bear little relation to what has gone before. The first time this happened was in the mid-1980s, with Meissen porcelain. It burst and "that market never recovered".

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