Last Tuesday, a friend on Instagram alerted me to what he thought was a bombshell: Allison Zuckerman’s Woman With Her Pet, a 2017 painting that mixes Old Master iconography with pastiches of other art historical references, had sold at Christie’s for just $20,000. The sale was noteworthy, of course, because the same painting sold in November 2021 for 10 times that amount.
Generally, when someone points out these kinds of market pullbacks, I respond that I’m more impressed that someone was willing to pay $20,000 than I am shocked by the drop, itself. Unfortunately, that’s one of the unique features of the art market: Works that trade too frequently are treated like damaged goods, even though nothing has changed about the object itself. It’s just a matter of perception.
