The Master, Judd Tully, is wandering around the Art Basel Miami preview, here’s what he found:

“People seem more chained to their desks,” said one blue-chip exhibitor, commenting on the underwhelming preview attendance, “and don’t have the luxury of flying off to an art fair.”

But for those who did show up, that might be a blessing. “We can’t be as rude [to clients] as we’ve been for the past three years,” said another dealer, admitting to a new friendly approach from dealers who, in the art market’s boom days, became used to tough bouts of one-upmanship.

But it felt almost like the old boom times, at least for a minute, at New York’s PaceWildenstein, when an American collector snapped up an Alexander Calder sterling silver necklace from 1941 for $450,000 as soon as she tried it on. “She put it on and owned it right then and there,” said the gallery’s Jennifer Joy. Is it art or jewelry? Right now, who cares?

A Kinder Gentler Art Basel (ArtInfo)