In its 2008 annual report on the contemporary art market, the art valuation database Artprice warns that a sharp correction to the that market is likely.

According to the report, which was issued this week to coincide with the FIAC contemporary art fair in Paris, between midway through 1991 and midway through 2008, contemporary artwork rose in value at a rate of 132 percent, or five times the appreciation of Old Masters, 19th-century, and modern and postwar pieces.

“As the global economy moves into a distinctly less favorable rhythm,” says the report, “fears of a sharp correction in the art market appear increasingly rational.”

The report noted that until June 2008 “confidence among market key players was still undeterred,” but that over the summer “for the first time, a substantial majority of those questioned expect prices to fall over the rest of 2008.” Many respondents also have “declare[d] that their financial situation has deteriorated.”

The report also spoke of the “expansion of the art market in countries that previously minor players in the ‘global’ art market, particularly Russia, China, and India,” and, as a consequence, “the development of a multipolar market” less focused on New York.