The auction house is still optimistic the sale will bring in $256m (€186m, ￡145m), up from $200m last year. “I am not saying that the art market and the financial market go in opposite directions. But experience tells us that the art market usually survives a bit longer than the financial market,” said Kevin Ching, chief executive officer at Sotheby's Asia.
Mr Ching said auction sales continued to thrive for about two years after the 1987 stock market crash and the 1998 Long-Term Capital Management collapse. Worldwide auction sales at Sotheby's rose 5 per cent in 1998 and 16 per cent in 1999 before dropping more than 10 per cent in 2000.
Sotheby's sold 218 Damien Hirst items for ￡111m, hours after the collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank last month.