Earlier this week, the Financial Times released its art market column by a guest contributor. The story, citing a report from the accounting firm Deloitte, opened with the shocking claim that “half of the nonbank businesses lending money against artworks experienced defaults on their loans in 2024, up from just 17 percent two years earlier, according to new research.” If you were not reading carefully, you might have easily concluded that half of art loans were in default. But a close examination reveals that the FT was making some very questionable assertions, based on comments from a few marginal players. To make matters worse, ARTnews rewrote the story uncritically.