L.A. Museums' Collections Grow Despite Poor Economy

"If the severe downturn continues, you will see the effects next year and the year after," he says. "It will be similar to what happened in the early '90s." But there could be some benefits. "When works of art double or triple in value in a year or two, they tend to end up at auction," he says. "When the market declines, people don't do as much buying and selling. Some of them say, 'Well, OK, it's worth more as a gift.' That affects the area of the market that moves most rapidly and where there has been the greatest speculation, and that's contemporary.