NEW YORK—Art critic Peter Schjeldahl in a recent column in The New Yorker magazine predicted the demise of both art fairs and the art market as “a bubble headed for a spectacular correction.”

After concluding that Art Basel Miami Beach was crazy fun, he reported that dealers at the fair also touted astronomical sales. (“It’s incredible,” one dealer told Schjeldahl. “No one questions price. They pay whatever is asked”).

Schejeldahl suspects that very soon, the end of the market boom could happen like this: “One day … someone in a convivial group of money guys at a bar will say, ‘I just got back from [name of art fair]. It was fantastic!’ Another will drawl, ‘You still into that?’ In the ensuing embarrassed silence, the bubble won’t burst; it will vanish.”
The New Yorker: Temptations of the Fair