While auction houses and dealers are increasingly worried of a downturn, a look back to the 1970s and 1980s suggests that their anxieties might be unfounded

There were few fireworks in the three-part sale as the froth comes off the top of the market

While the 2008 global financial meltdown largely failed to dent sales, in 2015 our editor-at-large warned that the falling oil price experienced at the time could prove much more serious

The New York critic discussed the recession, likeability and why the market is like magic mushrooms in a 2008 panel

Corporate giving down 14% over three years according to Business Committee for the Arts

But despite strong headline sales, missed estimates and cautious collectors signalled that 2010 would not be a return to the wild days

We noted in 2010, amid a painful global downturn, that a Picasso nude carried the largest pre-sale auction estimate in history at $70m to $90m

During the Great Recession in 2009 we reported that gallerists must act "quickly and brutally" in order to survive

In 2007 we noted that strong sales at auction and fairs and more money coming from Russia, Indian and Chinese collectors indicated that confidence in art remained strong

In 2007 the economist James Sproule examined the risks facing the market—and the good news was it was not all doom and gloom

In 2001 they predicted that some areas such as the Old Master market will remain stable but that trendy art would lose its zip

In 2001, the Yale professor attributed the one- to two-year lag between crashes to the time it takes to liquidate assets