Now on Your Computer: CultureGrrl on BBC-TV

The Bespoke BBC: Would you get in the back seat of a car with these chaps?

I look a little tired on camera, but so did auctioneer Tobias Meyer, on a rocky night. My interviewer for the piece on art prices is the appropriately named Matthew Price, above right. His trusty cameraman sidekick, left, is Keith Tayman. They abducted me in a black SUV for the presale interview, then waylaid me again at Sotheby's after the sale.

To see and hear my pre- and post-auction soundbites, go here.

Attention art-market press: This video clip includes a shot of you lined up at the front of the saleroom, pads and pens poised.

The pesky headline and caption writers are at it again: This piece is about the softening of the market and captures on camera Tobias Meyer reluctantly dispatching the rejected van Gogh. But the headline highlights "record prices" and its caption is similarly bullish:

The global credit crunch does not seem to have affected the art market with record prices achieved in New York.

At yesterday's post-sale press conference, David Norman, Sotheby's Impressionist/modern chairman, declined to blame last night's weak results on global economics. But art-market psychology could not have been helped by the big financial news of the day---recounted in the lead story in today's Wall Street Journal, "Markets Tumble As Dollar's Fall Adds to Anxiety":

The credit crisis sparked by mortgage problems reared its head anew, as stocks tumbled on fears about shaky financial institutions. This time, the dollar's fall to record lows and oil's flirtation with $100 a barrel added to the worrisome brew.

In this context, I'm somewhat relieved to inform you that I will not be reporting live from the big contemporary art auctions next week: I've been asked to give a couple of lectures on cultural property issues (from antiquities to Eakins) at the University of Pennsylvania.

More on this latest addition to the "CultureGrrl Curriculum," COMING SOON.