Andrew Fabricant has become an increasingly vocal anti-auction house figure in the press. Today he goes much further than the occasional press comment with a sustained performance on CNBC that includes the suggestion that 11 unsold lots constitutes a crack in the market and the idea that third-party guarantors buying the works they guaranteed is a bad thing.

CNBC’s Robert Frank went further: “We saw a breakdown last night in prices.”

The real question is how Fabricant hopes to improve his business by taking this position, especially when Fabricant quickly gets overwhelmed by the anti-art mockery from CNBC’s hosts who suggest the Twombly Fabricant predicts will make $50m (he doesn’t tell us whether this is a B- work or not) could have been made by Elmo or might be a fake.

 Auction Fatigue? (CNBC)