MValenti

"...cleaning up the market of both con-artists that should have never been allowed to enter the art market in first place and bad galleries including all those vanity galleries that have been flooding the market lately..."

"Why on earth would collectors do something like that in first place is beyond the logics of the art market and business."

Exactly my points.

Leonard ... what will be even more interesting is so see which artists are not picked up by any of the surviving galleries. Those who rode the market's big wave and then wiped-out.! That is going to be a hard lesson for both the artists and the people who bought into their hyped-up market.

While a bust may not clean 100% of the mess, it will remove most of it. We all know there are always some stubborn stains; however I am not a Contemporary dealer and cannot comment on the good or bad players. What I do know is that the landscape in this part of the art market is changing and that will be for the best.

Those galleries with deep pockets will weather almost any storm … but then again it is those deep pockets (or galleries who position themselves correctly to ride out these storms) that are usually a sign of smart business people.

As for critics, I really do not how many real ones still exist – but there are some. However, much of what I read appears to be rewording of gallery press releases … just more hype and fluff.

And finally there is quality … a very subjective word in the Cutting-Edge Contemporary field. Primary market makers always believe that what they are offering is the finest. It is only when those works reappear in the secondary market, without the financial support of the primary market maker, that we begin to see what the ‘market’ really believes are the quality works.