According to this August 4, 2010 report in the Wall Street Journal, the art market appears to be on a firm road to recovery.
As a basis for this report, among other things, the article cites to the following information:
* Christie’s International PLC said it sold $2.57 billion of fine and decorative art in the first half, up 43% from a year earlier and the second-highest in the company’s history.
* Christie’s total includes $274.1 million in art it sold privately, up by more than a third from a year ago;
* Sotheby’s said it auctioned $2.2 billion of art in the first half, more than double a year ago;
* At Christie’s, overall prices were up for nearly all of the auction house’s major art categories., including $853 million of Impressionist and modern art, up 37.4%; $460.7 million of postwar and contemporary art, up 139%; and $368.2 million of Asian art, up 120.6%.
These statistics do appear to show that the market has made a significant turnaround in one year.