Art Moments of 2008

Here is a good post as we wind up 2008 and look forward to 2009. Colin Gleadell of the Telegraph UK lists in chronological order the "Ten Art Moments of 2008". It is rather short and I really shouldn't post all of it, but many readers wont click through to read all 10, and it is insightful so I will. As you may guess, it starts on a high note and well, you know the current situation.

1 Against a backdrop of extreme financial volatility, the year opens with Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams and Phillips de Pury & Co all announcing record sales for 2007 $13.4 billion between them, up by an average 50 per cent on 2006. How long can this last?

2 In March, Sotheby's sells a painting by Congo the chimpanzee for £1,650 pounds - in a sale of Modern British art.

3 In May a Francis Bacon triptych became the most expensive contemporary art work ever at auction when it sold to Roman Abramovich for 86 million dollars at Sotheby's in New York.

4 Lucian Freud became the most expensive living artist at auction when his Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for $33 million at Christie's New York. A response to my blog on the Telegraph website asked why the artist could not afford a better sofa.

5 In September, Leeds dealers, the Tomasso Brothers, reveal the discovery of the year after proving that a bronze sculpture, which was estimated at just 800 pounds in a French auction room, is by the Renaissance artist Giambologna worth 33.8 million pounds.

6 Auctioneer John Nicholson in Surrey offers 235 paintings by Pietro Psaier, said to be an associate of Andy Warhol. Doubts whether Psaier ever existed create a media storm, but buyers are unperturbed paying up to £10,000 for some works.

7 On September 15th, the day on which US bank Lehmann Brothers went bankrupt, Damien Hirst held a near sell-out, 111 million pound auction of his own work at Sotheby's in London. Undoubtedly the sale of the year. Two months later Hirst concedes his prices are too expensive and should come down.

8 Biggest failure of the year: in November a self-portrait by Francis Bacon is unsold in New York in November with a 40 million dollar to 60 million dollar estimate.

9 In November, Prince Nikita Lobanov-Rostovsky picks up bargain of the year at Christie's Russian art sale in London when a drawing, estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 pounds is knocked down to him for just 13 pounds.

10 At the Art Basel Miami Beach fair this month, dealers estimate prices for contemporary art could fall back to 2002/3 levels. Eminent art critic, Jerry Salz, says 50 to 100 galleries in New York could close. Maybe there were too many anyway.