If you look at the sales totals for the Impressionist and Modern Evening sales in New York, you have to go back to 2003 to see a comparable number for Sotheby’s. If Christie’s does substantially better, we’ll be at May 2004 sales levels but if they merely match we’re back in 2003. That’s a blow but 2003 was hardly a devastating year for art sales.
The question for the market is not where we are but how far back we’ll keep going. Can sales stabilize at the 2003 or 2004 level or are we going to go even farther back?
