ABIGAIL ASHER: There are opportunities now. In the past few years a lot of people have been feeling shut out. A lot of our clients are feeling that this is a moment in history when they will be able to get truly great things back into their collections. Great things that people are forced to sell are going to be available.

ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN: Primary-market galleries are particularly appreciative of collectors who continue to patronize them during this period, and the goodwill that gets created will perhaps re-position certain collectors who were sidelined.

ABIGAIL ASHER: I feel that the primary market will be slower to recover than the secondary market.

STEFANO BASILICO: It’s an amazing time to do the kind of work we do. It was in the ‘90s — the bottom of the market — that some important collectors like Si Newhouse and Leonard Lauder built their collections. One conversation I’ve had with my clients is making it clear to them that masterpieces don’t come around every day. Even though you think the market may drop a little bit more tomorrow, this particular work may not be available tomorrow.

ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN: Some of the greatest opportunities I’ve had in my own collecting have been in the last number of months, when there’s been less collecting going on in general — when some of my clients have taken a pause, and I’ve had the opportunity to buy the things myself.

MARY HOEVELER: I’ve never heard a collector say that they regretted spending too much for something great. I’ve heard them say they regretted not buying something.

SARAH DOUGLAS: Are dealers readier to give you discounts these days?

ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN: There’s still a lack of clarity as to where prices can and should be. A few have been quick to adapt to the times in both primary- and secondary-market pricing.

SARAH DOUGLAS: Are your clients pressuring you to bargain more as well?

STEFANO BASILICO: I’ve always seen it as my job to bargain. Sometimes you have to understand what a bargain is. Is the bargain having an opportunity to purchase the work? Or getting a discount?

MARY HOEVELER: If the dealer is asking a fair price for the work to begin with, I really don’t have any interest in chiseling the dealer down on it.

ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN: In terms of the overall market, there has been a great disservice in how it has been reported recently. There’s been a tendency to look upon it monolithically. This is not one market. It’s not gold or pork bellies. In the evening sales, the market decided that there was a certain amount of work it wasn’t interested in. I think that true connoisseurship was being exercised in a great way.

ABIGAIL ASHER: Overpriced second-rate works were not selling. That’s great for the market.

ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN: I was surrounded at the fall auctions by real collectors, many of whom were probably sidelined in the past few years, who were actively buying. They were sane; they were thoughtful; they knew what they wanted. In two or three days, $300 million got spent on contemporary art, which is extraordinary.

STEFANO BASILICO: The poster child was the Yayoi Kusama painting at Christie’s. It set a record for Kusama, more than $5 million. It was in great condition and had been owned by Donald Judd. It became about connoisseurship.

MARY HOEVELER: Shows have sold out since September, in both secondary- and primary market material. The market is still quite active — it’s just that the urgency is gone and the prices are no longer going sky high.

TONY FREUND: The party is over, but the party isn’t what the art market should be about.

ALLAN SCHWARTZMAN: This has been a period in which there’s been a confusion between important artists and artists who have performed well in the marketplace.

STEFANO BASILICO: Money became the only barometer with which we evaluated art.

MARY HOEVELER: Wall Street began to take notice of what was happening to prices in the art market. After the softening of the [stock] market in 2002 and 2003, people gravitated toward the art market, which was relatively strong, because they saw the returns that art was bringing. The media fueled that. The feeding frenzy began, and people who were not traditional collectors came in.