NEW YORK—Banks failed, the Dow plummeted, and lawmakers took their sweet time approving a bailout. How long can the art market hold up? There were some ominous signs. Bloomberg reported sluggish sales in Chelsea’s galleries. The dismal results of a sale of street art in London were seen as a harbinger of a worsening market overall. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s is lining up some big-ticket items for its November sales — a painting by Malevich (estimated at over $60 million) and another by Picasso (estimated at $30 million) and another by Munch (estimated at $35 million). Christie’s sold portrait miniatures that had been stolen from a gallery. Cnet founder Halsey Minor is countersuing Sotheby’s for not disclosing its financial stake in artworks it sold. And auction houses continue to encroach on the primary market: Phillips de Pury & Co. will represent photographer Annie Leibowitz internationally. Dealers are hedging their bets by taking a global perspective: Gagosian is making 50 percent of his sales to Russians.

On the domestic (life) front, an artist has moved into the Whitney Museum. Jeff Koons’s ex wife, a former porn star, will retain custody of their son. And London art world power couple Jay Jopling (founder of White Cube gallery) and Sam Taylor Wood (famed YBA photographer) are going their separate ways after 11 years of marriage.

A stolen Renoir has been recovered in Milan, Mies van der Rohe's 1951 Farnsworth House suffered flood damage in Illinois, and the Picasso painting Steve Wynn punctured will go on view at Acquavella Galleries in New York in a couple weeks.

Glenn Lowry earned $1.7 million last year, the highest salary for an executive of a U.S. art nonprofit. Damien Hirst bought a portrait of Paris Hilton. Paris’s Musée des Arts Decoratifs is planning an exhibition devoted to supermodel Kate Moss. Banksy may or may not have made a mural in downtown Manhattan. And conceptual artist Jonathan Keats constructed a church for scientific worship in Berkeley, California.

Australian photographer Bill Henson finally commented on the controversy over his photographs: “It strikes me that beneath the panic and nonsense there was the basic common sense and decency of the vast majority of people.”

Sarah Douglas is Staff Writer at Art+Auction. She blogs at "The Appraisal."