According to press reports, “On the same day that selling pressure wiped $1.5 trillion off the value of Wall Street stocks, Asher Edelman was in the audience at the Phillips auction house in New York. Millions of dollars worth of art were sold in a row quickly – 8.4 dollars. Rothko million, Calder’s $15.6 million, and Basquiat’s $85 million, many of which sold well above their highest valuations.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that we had a great day,” says Edelman, a former financier and current chairman of ArtBnk. The market… there is a lot of liquidity in circulation.” He warns that in six months the situation will change: “It’s very simple … in 1989 and 2008 you had very similar activities … in 1989 the economy began to collapse, and by 1990 nothing was being traded.” Warns. Art in general…but in 1989 I sold 30% of my art collection for value in the November sales.”
Source: El Iktisad
