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Recession spreads to the art world

The record £111.5 million paid at auction last month for works by Leeds artist Damien Hirst marks the top of the art market in the UK, according to a survey by valuers.

When Hirst was grabbing headlines, the collapse in real-estate sales in the UK was taking its toll on prices of lower-value art and antiques, said the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

With credit crunch and banking uncertainties markets are slowing down. Auction houses are watching for signs of how their sales will perform in London and New York in the next two months. Even wealthy art buyers may be deterred by the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

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