In speaking with a collector today who is over 50 and visiting New York, he asked where all the dealers went who handle Impressionist and more traditional works. He obviously remembered when you could “gallery-hop” for a few days on the Upper East Side, and you had to put “holds” on works that could sell to the next person in the door.  He wondered what he would see when he went to the auction of 19^th century European Art at Sotheby’s.  I told him, “Well, you won’t see anyone in the room.”  There was a time when the room would be filled with elegantly dressed European dealers, debonair business men, and couples, and there was a flurry of last minute deals and jockeying between art world “movers and shakers”. There were whispers about a period of a work, how rare it was, whether it would clean, and who might be bidding. Recently at an evening sale the people around me discussed where they were going to dinner and what social event they were attending that week.

It has been disheartening to see many long time collectors feeling out-of-step, shaken in their confidence of what in the market has value and why. They are mystified as to why a Jeff Koons Balloon Dog is so much more fascinating than that great Bierstadt Indian Encampment View they have or a WPA work that speaks volumes of an American effort. The shiny Balloon Dog now sells for 10 times more than their precious American painting and would be taken for a silly party favor their wife shouldn’t have spent 10 dollars on.

We urge these collectors to stay the course and remember Jeff Koons has put a lot of his own money into Old Masters. If your Barbizon work is not up in value, well at least you haven’t paid $800,000 for something made within the last five years that may be worth less than $80,000 in another 5 years.

The markets ARE changing just that fast.

This is a time of TRANSITION in the art world. Certainly the global markets are in transition. Many years out we will understand that this was a time of sorting out and upheaval. I predict that out of this transition is going to come some interesting and unexpected times to come with art. If some visionary people rise to the occasion, we may see some unexpected turn of events and even ones that our “over 50 group” will find may engage them in unexpected ways.  Stay in the game!