We should not read too much into the midseason sales held at Phillips, Christie’s, and Sotheby’s last week. Originally timed to coincide with the Armory Show art fair, the sales now represent a difficult corner of the market, where contemporary art is mostly sold at estimates in the five- and six-figure range, and results can be quite volatile in either direction. As we’ll see from the numbers below, the overall news is that the art market continues to heal—and it continues to favor historical work over recently made art.