Month: June 2011

Predictions that Los Angeles will become the next capital of the art world have so far come to nothing — but is that about to change, asks Anthony Haden-Guest
 

Where the art market leads, the stock market often follows. If what’s been going on at Sotheby’s lately is any kind of indicator, there are hard times to come, says Ivan Lindsay
 
 
FOLLOWING THE RECENT two-week marathon of art sales at the leading auction rooms and a difficult three nights for Sotheby’s, the Sotheby’s share price has turned down, halting a breathtaking ascent that took it from its 2009 low of 7 to its recent high of 54 on the New York Stock Exchange. The fall took the share price down to 40, a loss of more than 20 per cent in a month and a half. In the past, such drops in the Sotheby’s share price have been an early warning of trouble ahead in the art market and also for the broader stock market.

Sophie McBain on the influential princesses of the ruling Gulf-state families who are stepping up to promote and nurture an emerging art scene
 

ARTISTICALLY, THE GULF states were not long ago considered the Empty Quarter, but now the contemporary art scene is flourishing in the region’s oil-rich mini-monarchies. Unusually for this part of the world, the loudest, clearest and most influential voices behind the renaissance are female, and because royal patronage still drives change and titles matter, some of the biggest movers are sheikhas.