For the first time in around a year, there was a palpable energy at a contemporary art fair as collectors unleashed pent-up buying power. Deals closed fast and furiously, both on the ground floor, amid million dollars price tags, and upstairs where the newer art commanded around $20,000 to several hundred thousand. Economists would have been mystified at the spending patterns of the art collecting elite. It was as if the worldwide recession was a thing of the past, or at least momentarily forgotten. Dealers, collectors, advisors and curators agreed that exhibitors had brought out their most tantalizing material, plucking the best of their inventory and prying top, fresh goods from artists resulting in a fair flush with prime works. The fair got off to a strong start as collectors poured into the boxy industrial convention hall promptly at 11 am. A chic, mostly European crowd, wearing the latest in tans courtesy of the Venice Biennale, dashed for the stands. “In the first half hour of the fair, I’ve seen the best stuff I’ve seen all year,” said one private dealer. “Every booth so far had something great.” Collectors were intent on buying, not merely browsing. Europeans overwhelmingly outnumbered the Americans. Buyers noticed the action. “There was high quality material on the primary market and active trading going on", said one collector. “Connoisseurs are taking advantage of the current cycle in the market.” It seems that financial conditions weren’t a deterrent on opening day and that we are far enough into this new economic cycle that people are comfortable spending again. “I’m not saying the bull market is back,” said one dealer. “But I’m saying the art market needed a good fair and this is it.”
