Can the art market prosper in recession?

Should we care if the bubble in the market for modern art and sculpture has burst?

The grand art auctions in New York are now failing to deliver the astronomical prices for trendy works that they once did.

In a recent series of sales of Russian art, works that were expected to go for about $60m fetched $40m instead.

What may be happening is that the recession is denting a speculative market in an interesting way.

Russian oligarchs, for example, may be off-loading the daubs from their walls to pay off debt, increasing supply.

There is a view that this is all a good thing.

If you do like art, runs the argument in the trade, a collapse of silly prices might winnow the over-hyped rubbish a bit like a fire clears land of weed for new growth.

Business Daily sent Nigel Wrench to test the argument in the fashionable gathering places of the art world at one of its hubs - in London.

First broadcast on Business Daily on 26 March 2009