On November 17 in London Sotheby's and Louis Vuitton will co-host a gala charity auction of six limited-edition Special Orders Vuitton pieces to benefit the Red Cross and commemorate the organization's 150th anniversary. Since its creation in 1854, Vuitton's Special Orders department has made bespoke creations (see Karl Lagerfeld's here) to suit the whims of customers willing to pay for the perfect carrying case to suit their whims. For the Red Cross benefit sale, Vuitton created custom pieces for Damien Hirst (a butterfly armoire), chef Ferran Adrià (trolley case with knife tray), photographer Annie Leibovitz (camera bags), musician and composer Gustavo Santaolalla (instrument case), Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs (dog carrier) and Patrick Louis Vuitton (alligator tool kit), the head of Vuitton's Special Orders department and a member of the fifth generation of the Vuitton family. Each piece was designed by Patrick-Louis Vuitton in collaboration with the celebrity, along with a special Red Cross medical kit trunk (above) with boxes for emergency supplies.

Ukraine is about to get a new contemporary art center. Victor Pinchuk is shooting to make Kiev a major art destination, so the wealthy art collector is creating a new center that will be larger than the existing PinchukArtCentre, which was the first private contemporary art center in the former Soviet Union and has had more than 830,000 visitors since its doors swung open in 2006.

Pinchuk, a steel billionaire, is an avid collector, with pieces by Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Andreas Gursky. His new endeavor, he tells Bloomberg News, "will make Kiev and Ukraine a fantastic place for contemporary art." Pinchuk made the proclamation at a show for 20 Ukrainian artists who were nominated for the first Pinchuk Art Center Prize, which comes with a cash component of $12,200 and a one-month internship with an artist from the international scene. Hirst himself will announce the winner on December 4, 2009.

Pinchuk has a strong relationship with the artist celebrity and owns "probably half" of the skull paintings (by the collector's own estimation) in the current Hirst show at the Wallace Collection in London. He also participated in Hirst's solo auction in September 2008 but wouldn't tell what he bought.

The three major auction houses were upbeat at the Frieze Art Fair and seem to think an art market recovery is in the works. ArtInfo reports that Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips de Pury came out of the event feeling positive about the market's direction – even if it is tempered with a dose of reality. The number of pieces sold and the prices at which they moved were still pretty far from what they were in the pre-Lehman days. For now, though, collectors need to think about the early stages of recovery, not hope for a return to the glory days of 2007.

The auction houses did fairly well, though estimates tend to be far lower than a year ago. Damien Hirst's Wallace Collection moved well, with "Two Skulls" selling for $705,244, far more than its presale estimate. Emerging artists had moments in the sun, as well, particularly Hurvin Anderson's "Untitled (Beach Scene)," which sold for $158,304 – more than three times its presale estimate. Farhad Moshiri's "Cowboy and Indian" more than doubled its presale estimate, with a price of $548,976. In general, the auctions posted sufficient results, the first step in a market turn. Sotheby's and Christie's pierced the $20 million mark in recent contemporary auctions, and Phillips de Pury moved 31 of 43 lots to reach $6.7 million in a recent contemporary auction.

Now that the art market is moving from Frieze to FIAC and into the busy fall auction season, we'll get a sense of what 2010 will look like ... and if the market is finally picking up the momentum we all want it to show. The last art market slump, from 1990 to 1992, didn't bring an immediate resolution, with prices not returning to normal until 1995. So, brace yourselves for a slow recovery (or treat it as bargain season!).

Christie's International moved $18.3 million in art at its contemporary London auction on Friday. Three pieces sold for more than $1.6 million (including fees), with the top price going for a piece by Martin Kippenberger ($3.76 million); a phone bidder acquired it. Of the 25 lots offered at the art auction, which coincided with the Frieze Art Fair, 24 sold. Half the lots went to bidders from North America.

The equivalent auction held by Christie's last year consisted of 47 lots and brought in revenue of $52 million. But, it missed the low-end estimate of $95 million by a mile. At that auction, 45 percent of the lots didn't sell.

The seemingly better performance this year may provide a warm feeling to a market that's been battered for a while, but it should be balanced against the fact that expectations were much lower than last year, a trend that has developed throughout the art market slump.

Other impressive results include $1.46 million for "Signal Box" by Neo Rauch, $1.57 million for Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Fuego Flores" and $886,000 for Damien Hirst's "Retribution."

Damien Hirst is again playing the role of philanthropist (so I have to be nice), along with Raqib Shaw and Marc Quinn. The artists have donated paintings to an auction that London jeweler Laurence Graff is holding for FACET (For Africa's Children Every Time). Graff wants to raise $1.26 million for the organization, which seeks to support the education, health and quality of life of children in Africa ... where Graff Diamonds picks up most of its raw material.

Graff's event follows several other charity auctions this year, all of which were pretty impressive in their results. Sotheby's raised ₤453,950 for two organizations that help orphans in Africa, and Christie's raised an astounding €342.5 million at its Yves Saint Laurent collection auction back in February – the money will be used to fund HIV research and fight the spread of AIDS.

The first lot donated was by Graff himself: diamond earrings estimated to be worth around ₤80,000. The other paintings (e.g., by Hirst) are pegged at around ₤100,000 each.

A college project by artist Damien Hirst sold at auction last week for roughly $50,000. The collage, "Red Rubber Ball," sold at the low end of the estimate, which ranged up to $80,000. The piece includes a variety of found objects, such as a toy rabbit, a severed head from a doll and a dried out rose. Originally, Damien Hirst gave the piece to Julie Balmforth, who studied with him at Goldsmiths College.

The collage measures 39.5 inches by 31.5 inches and sold at Duke's of Dorchester, in Dorset. While the buyer's identity was not revealed, auctioneer Guy Schwinge would say that it went to an Irish collector "who is very excited at his purchase."

Whoever picked up the piece did buy something rare: a piece actually created with Hirst's own hands.

On November 17, 2009, several celebrity-designed luggage will go up for auction at Sotheby's. The purpose is to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Red Cross, which is about as worthy an organization as one can imagine. In all seriousness – most people have no idea the true range of services and support that the Red Cross offers. If a soldier overseas needs to be reached because of an emergency back home, the family can call the Red Cross, which will do all the legwork. So, it's exciting to see some big names getting behind this cause.

Among the designers, however, are some artists who have been in the news lately. Annie Leibovitz, fresh from her negotiations with Art Capital Group over her $24 million loan, is finding some time for goodwill despite her financial situation. Her contribution is a red-lined backpack designed specifically for camera equipment.

Damien Hirst has also gotten in on the charitable action. The taxidermist artist who developed a name dumping maritime life in formaldehyde and affixing as many diamonds as possible to skulls has put together a tall black trunk with little drawers to hold surgical devices – which is what Hirst uses to build his ... ummmm ... stuff. This piece, in particular, should be in high demand, now that a Damien Hirst piece may actually have been touched by Damien Hirst. Last November, he laid off 17 of the 22 people involved in his pill cabinet creation.

Let's hope that these pieces – and the others brought to Sotheby's in two months – sell for fantastic prices. Art market be damned! This event is for a great organization, and every extra dollar of success will help someone out who needs it.

At today's Phillips de Pury & Co. auction, Now: Art of the 21st century, handbag designer (and possibly former artist) Damien Hirst is back on the scene with a major auction house. A year ago, he divested his collection of his own work, ostensibly sensing that the market for him was about to crash (which, in fact, it did). Phillips de Pury isn't making any big bets today with Hirst, though. For now, it has two lithographs of Hirst's famous(ly expensive) skull up for sale. For the Love of God, Laugh; The Diamond Skull is listed at £10,000 - £15,000.

Peter Fuss, on the other hand, seems to have nailed it. His piece, For the Laugh of God,, shown above, is also up for grabs. It's a knockoff skull, listed for a little more than half the price of the lithos (£6,000 - £8,000), but the title conveys the spirit. Created when Hirst was peddling the original skull for the princely sum of £50 million ($100 million at the time), For the Laugh of God was originally offered for £100, as a way to help Britain reclaim this "treasure."

The blog "Modelator," which covers Polish art, observed in June 2007, "Our British friends, we are coming to rescue you! Like the cheap Polish labour well known to you, Polish artist Peter Fuss wishes to relieve the British nation from such a great expense." This was in response to Guardian journalist Jonathan Jones, who declared, "We must buy the diamond skull for Britain."

While Hirst's skull cost a fortune even in materials, For the Laugh of God consists of close to 9,900 pieces of glass made to look like diamonds and entailed an investment of £250 and 18 hours. Now, it's up for more than 40 times that amount, while Hirst is reduced to selling posters.

Selling at the top of a bubble is fantastic ... if you can pull it off. You look, feel and live like an absolute genius. Former art dealer Anthony d'Offay did this, unloading 725 postwar and contemporary pieces before the art market collapsed, dragged down by a global financial crisis. Timing is everything, and the collection purchased for a mere £26.5 million was valued at an astounding £125 million. Included were Jeff Koons' "Winter Bears," an Andy Warhol hamburger (evidently more expensive than those at Burger Joint) and an Anselm Kiefer palm tree.

D'Offay didn't make a dime.

Rather than sell the collection at a profit of close to £100 million, he sold them to the United Kingdom at cost: £26.5 million. Instead of taking the money, d'Offay chose to be paid with strings ... namely those attached to the deal. The condition of his sale was that the country had to send the artwork on tour throughout the UK, making it easy for people under age 18 to access the art.

D'Offay explains that financial constraints on British museums – which are free and thus have no money with which to acquire new pieces – are great for the people, but not for keeping the walls full with fresh material. On the list for the future is a special room for Damien Hirst's "Pharmacy" installation and has already purchased Hirst's "Painkillers" piece (pill cabinet) for $877,000. In a deal with Hirst, he also picked up work by Koons, and Hirst's new "Necromancer." Hirst was d'Offay's gallery assistant as he was finishing college.

D'Offay's talent, he says, is buying art, rather than curating or creating. He became inspired as a child in northern England when viewing a collection of Francis Bacon (shocking, right? Bacon connection comes back again ...).

Last year, Vanity Fair's "New Establishment" list was hefty with art market players. This year, the magazine noted that the Wall Street folks and "big media" got their asses handed to them ... but a quick look shows that the arts got slammed, as well.

In 2008, the entire Francis Bacon supply chain showed up on the list. Bacon-inspired Damien Hirst (shown at right) filled the production link, with dealer Larry Gagosian moving Hirst's product and Roman Abramovich buying up not the Bacon-inspired but the works of the master himself. And, they wound up in some hefty positions. Hirst hit #31, with Gagosian close behind at #38. Of course, deep pockets win, which is how ol' Roman pierced the top 10 (at #8).

This year? Well, the Francis Bacon supply chain didn't fair as well. Abramovich was ignored completely, along with Gagosian. Hirst was tossed into the "Pit Stop," where he's joined by shark-loving hedge fund manager and art collector Steve Cohen, who sacrificed $750 million of his own wealth to the financial crisis.

While Cohen keeps the comings and goings of SAC Capital Advisors under wraps, we do know that Hirst had to layoff 20 employees. There's a silver lining, though. With Hirst having to do more of his own work, we probably won't have to see as much of it.

The time to grow is when the market is suffering. This must be in the back of the mind of art market guru Larry Gagosian, who has been involved with such heavy-hitter artists as Damien Hirst and Richard Prince. While there are small signs of a recovery, much is still uncertain. However, this hasn't stopped Gagosian from making a bold move: opening a branch of the Gagosian Gallery in Paris.

Bloomberg News reports that Gagosian is in talks to pick up space in the 8th arrondissement, near la rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. Nobody from the Gagosian camp has commented so far.

There are plenty of deep-pocketed art collectors in Paris, including Francois and Bernard Arnault, and the French market hasn't suffered as severely as those in London and New York. That said, Paris is the smallest of the western troika, but with a presence in the two largest markets already, the French capital was the next logical step.

Waring Hopkins, director of modern art specialist Hopkins-Custot – which is located in what is likely to become Gagosian's back yard – observed to Bloomberg, "Gagosian would instantly become one of the most important dealers in Paris," and that setting up shop in Paris "would be good for Gagosian and it would be good for the city."

The market itself is only part of what makes the expansion shrewd. Gagosian can use the space in Paris to show works from contemporary artists represented by competing galleries in New York and London.

Despite the large flushing sound that's accompanied the art market this year, there are still 10 collectors worth noting. In fact, ARTnews was even able to cobble together a top 200 list this year (if they went to 300, I figure I'd wind up on the list, too, given the state of the art market right now). The names in the top 10 still represent the art collecting elite, they just happen to be in much worse shape than they were at this time last year.

Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and art addict, takes the #1 spot. It would be easy to zero in on any one of several purchases last year and call it "defining," but the man spent a few hundred million on art. The most expensive pickup was a Francis Bacon triptych which set him back almost $90 million.

Top 10 Art Collectors (according to ARTnews):

1. Roman Abramovich
2. Debra and Leon Black
3. Edythe L. and Eli Broad
4. Steven Cohen
5. Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis
6. Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder
7. Francois Pinault
8. Mitchell Rales
9. Carlos Slim Helu
10. Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani

Okay, so you take a quick look at this list and realize that Abramovich, who requested a bailout from the Russian government, isn't the only flawed personality it contains. Steven A. Cohen, the Connecticut-based hedge fund manager, owns a dead rotting shark. While Damien Hirst's ego is built to last, his creations are more like personal computers ... planned obsolescence. Kravis, who sits atop esteemed and powerful private equity firm KKR, was not left unscathed by the current financial crisis. The precipitous drop in oil prices over the past year must have left the sheikh in a rough spot, and Slim thought he could make money by investing in a newspaper (that's just fucking stupid ... almost as stupid as paying $90 million for a 1970s Bacon, frankly).

Maybe we'll see some changes over the next year. I wouldn't mind writing about an unknown visionary busting into the winners circle at this time next summer. Now, all we have to do is find one.

Artist Damien Hirst is known for many things, animals suspended in formaldehyde, a skull covered in diamonds, but one thing he is not known for is working alone. Hirst has employed teams of assistants for years to help him work on his pieces. But Hirst has gone back to basics for his series called 'The Blue Paintings." Done between 2006 and 2008, the 25 paintings mark Hirst's return to solo brush on canvas action. Only for an artist like Hirst would working alone actually be considered newsworthy, for him, it's practically a stunt.

The paintings will be exhibited at The Wallace Collection, a national museum in an historic London town house. Hirsts's new works will be surrounded by Old Master paintings in small rooms with silk-covered walls and gilded cornices. Very few living artists have shown their work at The Wallace Collection. Hirst says he chose to exhibit his works there because his new works "feel like they belong here with other works and objects from other times." The exhibition will open in October.

Prizes – in art, journalism or anywhere else – are intended to show that a particular achievement exceeds the others in its field. The Turner Prize is a prestigious contemporary art award in Britain is for artists under 50 and has been around for 25 years. Here's the problem: the Turner Prize has always gone to art that sucks. Nobody liked the work. So, this year, a prize that typically has gone to pieces that shock is doing some shocking of its own.

The judges hope that the Turner Prize will go to a creation that people actually like.

The four artists nominated this year aren't as controversial as past entries, but they do bring unusual perspectives. Roger Hiorns is described as a "modern alchemist," mixing a variety of household materials with liquid copper sulphate and an empty apartment to express his vision. Enrico David focuses on the human figure, while Lucy Skaer uses photographs as starting points for drawings and sculpture. Richard Wright, rounding out the list of nominees, works with large wall paintings tailored to the spaces in which they appear.

This work makes a bit more sense than at least one past winner (2001): Grayson Perry, a cross-dressing potter, and Martin Creed had an installation consisting of lights flickering in an empty room. Reaction: one visitor threw two eggs at the wall.

And, of course, Damien Hirst is a past winner, though I struggle to understand why. He's only done one installation that worked for me (a year and a half ago, at the Lever House in New York).

Judge and art critic Jonathan Jones observes, "People say 'my child could do that.' It's not conceivable that you could look at any of these artists (in that way)." He goes a bit too far, however, when he continues, "It shows there is a great deal of talent in contemporary art."

Maybe the Turner Prize will redeem itself in 2009. We'll find out on December 7.

Art auction houses are looking to protect themselves. Lacking a local "enforcer" to find once eager collectors and shake them down for every last dollar, the likes of Sotheby's and Christie's will spend the coming fortnight managing expectations while trying to eke out a living. Atop the agenda this season is the notion of protecting price levels for Impressionist, modern and contemporary pieces.

Reality has struck.

Sotheby's has revealed a sales target of $179 million to $256 million for the spring. Last fall, the auction house hit $411 million – which is paltry compared to the $742 million take at this time last year. The showpiece now is "Baroque Egg with Bow," a sculpture by Jeff Koons, which carries a Sotheby's estimate of $6 million. While this sounds rich for today's market, the house almost quadrupled that amount with a sculpture from the same artist in 2007.

For those who haven't been keeping score, 2007 for the art world was like 1999 for technology people.

By reinforcing concern through modest estimates and carefully selected lots, the major (and smaller auction houses) are subtly positioning themselves for any unexpected support. A strong spring auction – as measured by current economic conditions – could cause global art market confidence to rebound. A turn for the worse, however, would be exacerbated by already depressed hopes.