Art Market Shuts Out All but the Super Rich

INTERNATIONAL TIMES HERALD
By Souren Melikian

El Greco’s ‘‘Christ on the Cross’’

UNITED KINGDOM---The massive price rise of art over the past five decades, whipped up by professionals to the cheers of the media chorus, has had an underreported consequence. Buying art has become the privilege of the very rich. Auctions became events and buying art a fashionable game played by ever-growing numbers. Countries previously barely involved in buying art in the Western market joined the fun. This happened at a Sotheby’s London sale of Old Masters on July 3. El Greco’s “Saint Dominic in Prayer,” expected to sell between £3 million and £5 million plus the sale charge, cost £9.15 million. Within 30 minutes, a second El Greco, “Christ on the Cross,” also expected to sell within those limits, did not even make it to the lower end of the estimate when it realized £3.44 million. Amusingly, “Christ on the Cross,” which made slightly more than one third of the price paid for the first El Greco, is held by some to be the greater picture. [link]