Masterpieces by the likes of Picasso typically sell well in any season. But the international art market is seeing seismic shifts in the way it behaves, according to longtime dealers and auction executives. Gone, for example, are the days when collectors in Europe and the U.S. dictated tastes and drove prices. Today’s art market is being steered by a bigger and more geographically diverse pool of collectors than the blue-chip buyers of a generation ago.
The dizzying prices at New York auctions this week—including a Pablo Picasso painting that sold for nearly $180 million Monday—signal a new era for the global art market in which no one region reigns supreme.
