«IT'S CALLED GOSSIP AND OF COURSE IT'S AN OBSESSION OF MINE»

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Damien Hirst’s record “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” sale and collapse of Lehman Brothers Inc. in September marked the turning of the art market in 2008.The financial-market rout curtailed spending by U.S. and European art collectors. Falling commodity and equity prices suppressed demand from buyers from the emerging economies of Russia and the Middle East. In 2007, Sotheby’s and Christie’s International’s regular mixed-owner sales of contemporary art in New York and London totaled a record $2.4 billion with fees. This year, because of a slowing of demand in the final quarter, the equivalent auctions totaled less than $2 billion, a decline of 17 percent, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg News.