On the opening day of New York’s Armory Show last week, the dealer Christophe Van de Weghe was standing inside his booth, munching on a croissant and growing increasingly exasperated by questions that implied the art market is in a slump.
That morning, he’d sold a painting by Jean Dubuffet for $650,000. And “yesterday I had a dinner in my gallery for this young artist that I’m showing,” he said, gesturing around him where wispy abstract paintings by an artist named Frederic Anderson hung. “The price is $34,500, and we sold seven,” he continued. “This morning we already sold two paintings here. I mean, I’m doing very well. I’m selling. I don’t know what the other guys are doing.”
