One of the truisms of the recent art market is that blue chip art behaves like gold. Both have no intrinsic use value but generate eternal demand. Art, of course, is not uniform like precious metals but we’re not living in normal economic times. Art is being seen as a safe-haven store of value, the same logic behind gold and silver. Unfortunately, gold has traded down in recent days in the face of rising economic uncertainty about Europe. Some financial commentators suggest this might be a bursting of the gold bubble (then, again, it could just be brief correction.)

Sotheby’s stock (BID) seems to be travelling a similar path, which should make us wonder as we enter the all-important Autumn auction season: