Market Update - Sluggish Sales at Chelsea galleries

As reported by Katya Kazakina for Bloomberg today, as the Dow Jones fell 777 points, the single largest point drop ever:

Joel Sternfeld's panoramic photos of Manhattan's High Line railway and Yellowstone National Park have been acquired by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and ING Belgium SA. His new large-scale color prints capturing the seasonal changes of a field in central Massachusetts are having a tougher time finding buyers. The turmoil in the financial markets appears to be keeping clients from doling out $50,000 for Sternfeld's 5-foot-by-7-foot (1.5-by-2.1-meter) works exhibited at Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea, New York's hub for contemporary art.

``The response has been slow,'' says Natalia Sacasa, the gallery's senior director. Six out of 13 works have sold since the show opened on Sept. 6. ``There isn't the frenzy we all have become accustomed to.''

In Chelsea, sales are more sluggish and art buyers increasingly cautious as the financial sector reels from losses. While dealers say it's too early to tell whether the art bubble has burst, there are signs that the market is becoming more attractive for buyers and less favorable to sellers.

``My clients are sitting tight and they want to see what happens in the next six to eight months,'' says Cristina Delgado, a New York-based art adviser. ``The prices for young and emerging artists have to come down to adjust to a new economic reality.''

Joel Sternfeld, East Meadows, Northampton, Massachussetts, 2006