Prior to 2000 the British went share crazy after the Thatcher years of
privatisation
[31]
the internet bubble drew a huge number of Greenfield investors
into the money markets.
[32]
At this time Christie’s and Sotheby’s were being taken towards the anti
trust
[33]
cases that ran tremors through the world of portable art.
The Arts in Britain muted to be suffering for years of diminishing grants
[i]
fed by the press writing stories of charitable gifts by private
individuals to save the nations heritage. The Arts ‘won the lottery’ via the
Heritage Lottery fund, giving the museums the ability to purchase works deemed
as national or even local treasures of importance. This also provided investment
for new buildings such as the Lowry
[ii]
combined regeneration and a construction project of £106
million.
From 1993 onwards the market was subjected to museums paying record prices
for objects of cultural importance such as the ‘Beckett’s casket’
[iii]
. This in turn fed the market to search for objects with good
provenance at auction or by private treaty on the assumption of turning what
was perceived as ‘muck’ to brass. This activity moved the market to higher a
plain as the end of the decade approached
[iv]
.
The art market was buoyant as was the stock market the additional profits
from this activity may have been invested in chattels. Once the millennium had
arrived the financial markets suffered a drop in activity that maybe reflected
within the art market.
[34]
An almost parallel run of the late 80’s crash with the exception
of bricks and mortar in 2000, implying a ten-year cycle with the financial sector.