Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

If the adage holds that the fine art market is a reflection of trends in the global economy, then China’s relative resilience during the current Great Recession may have foreshadowed the remarkable strength of two Chinese painters at the 2009 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction.

The lingering impact of last year’s meltdown on Wall Street combined with a generally weaker line-up of two-dimensional works at Coeur d’Alene’s marquee July 25 event in Reno, Nevada yielded sales of $11.8 million, or roughly one-third of the total gross recorded a year ago.

Some of it was to be expected and followed patterns established earlier this summer at Sotheby’s and Christie’s as well as in other winter and spring auctions in the U.S.  Peter Stremmel, one of Coeur d’Alene’s organizers and owner of a namesake contemporary art gallery in Reno, began his recap by first pointing to some of the positive statistics.

Stremmel said the auction, overall, was a 90-percent sale, meaning nine of every ten works sold for at least the minimum reserve price or even higher than pre-auction estimates. “That’s absolutely unheard of in this present environment,” Stremmel said.
In spite of the reticence from many of the high enders, all 550 chairs in the auction room were filled with standing room only along the perimeter.

Still, a number of works, including pieces by prominent living artists went unsold.  By and large, Stremmel noted, many more pieces closed near the low end of lower estimates than in...