High Art and High Finance in the Tank

Somewhere Robert Hughes is smiling. Hot on the heels of my column in last week’s issue of the magazine, a major Picasso work that was to be the highlight of the fall auction season at Sotheby’s has been withdrawn. The reasons were not disclosed, but as the NYT reported, "it had been rumored for weeks that the work would be taken off the market because of fears that art prices were heading the way of the world financial markets."

Related: A recent article from New York mag about the chill in the air at London’s Frieze Art Fair. Thanks to John Intini for the link.