Common Sense: Record Prices Mask a Tepid Art Market

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By James B. Stewart

Sanford Robinson Gifford’s "Sunday Morning in the Camp of the Seventh Regiment," which hung in the Oval Office for over 20 years, didn’t sell at this week’s auction at Christie’s.

NEW YORK---Despite the headlines and the hyperbolic enthusiasm of many auctioneers and dealers, the broad market for fine art is in the doldrums, according to experts who track sales data. Many works are selling near or below their low estimates or failing to sell at all. As measured by the Mei Moses World All Art Index, a widely cited benchmark, the market for fine art declined 3.3 percent in 2012, and gained 2.2 percent through November, even with the recent record-setting sales. Strip out traditional Chinese art, the value of which has been surging for years thanks to the interest of wealthy Chinese buyers, and the performance would be much worse. [link]