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AFR: At Christie's over the last few weeks, two experts in old master paintings and drawings quietly left the auction house. Their departures followed a year of spotty sales, in which the values of works by old masters – a pantheon of European painters working before around 1800 – fell by 33 per cent, according to the 2016 Tefaf Art Market Report.
At a time when contemporary art is all the rage among collectors, viewers and donors, many experts are questioning whether old master artwork – once the most coveted – can stay relevant at auction houses, galleries and museums. Having struggled with shrinking inventory and elusive profits, auction houses appear to be devoting most of their attention and resources to contemporary art, the most popular area of their business.
"They want to be associated with the new and the now," said Edward Dolman, chairman and chief executive of Phillips auction house, who spent much of his career at Christie's chasing works by old masters but now focuses on contemporary art.
"We have no intention of selling old masters pictures or 18th-, 19th-century pictures, because these markets are now so small and dwindling," he added. "The new client base at the auction houses – and the collecting tastes of those clients – have moved away from this veneration of the past."
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