Nobody can find a trace of the good vibes from the May contemporary art auction at Christie's. London art sales are off an estimated 70 percent this month from a year ago. The amount of top-shelf lots being offered has fallen precipitously. Auction house price guarantees are little more than a quaint novelty – this last bit spells continued heartache for the beleaguered art market.

So, if you're looking for Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon or Richard Prince, you're more likely to find them in a museum than under the gavel.

The lack of price guarantees has been particularly problematic for the art market. Without that fallback position, collectors are withholding their pieces from auction, instead pursuing private sales ... or simply continuing to hold the pieces. It follows traditional investment strategy. Would you buy high and sell low? The same thinking applies to the art market.

Last year, six works were guaranteed and sold for more than $20 million. This year, nothing is expected to cross that threshold at auction. Both Sotheby's and Christie's have shrunk their catalogues by 10 percent and are even using these auction marketing tools to promote their private sale departments.

All of this sets the stage for the upcoming Impressionist auctions at Christie's (June 23, 2009) and Sotheby's (June 24, 2009). Estimates are low, with the former at $62 million and the latter at $44 million. Last year's estimates were well over twice this year's. On the June 25, 2009, Sotheby's will hold a contemporary auction and expects to pull in a mere $31 million, down more than two-thirds. The Christie's contemporary auction on June 30, 2009 is estimated at $29 million, down 78 percent from last year's estimate. There won't be as many works from the masters coming to market, thanks to the absence of guarantees.

Looking for a cool piece by Lucian Freud? Try MoMA.

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.

The latest artist to grace the famous label of Château Mouton-Rothschild will be Lucian Freud. Freud, who is the grandson of Sigmund Freud, is one of the most famous and most collectible of the modern artists (his picture Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for over $33 million last year). Freud's label for the 2006 vintage of Château Mouton-Rothschilld shows a playful image of a red-striped zebra and a potted palm tree that recalls one of his earliest works, The Painter's Room from 1944. It is a far cry from the controversy-causing portraits which often show his famous and non-famous subjects with their lumps and bumps exposed. As is tradition, Freud will be compensated for his work with cases of the Mouton bearing his label. Picasso, Dali, Andy Warhol and even Prince Charles are among the artists who have designed for the label before. Check out the gallery below for some of the most famous labels.

Christie's has announced it will offer one of the two Lucian Freud portraits of Francis Bacon in its Post-War and Contemporary Art auction in London this October. Pilar Ordovas, Christie's Head of Post-War and Contemporary art, calls it an "intimate portrait" that is a testament to the relationship between arguably the two "most important British artists of the 20th century."

The piece is estimated to reach bids of up to £7 million, though if last May's sale of Freud's Benefit Supervisor Sleeping is any indication, it might go for more -- that painting sold for $33 million.

British painter Lucian Freud's portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (above) sold to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich for $33 million in May, setting a new world record for a living artist, and no doubt making him very happy. Freud just got some bad news, however; the artist was recently informed that one of his subjects, Bernard Breslauer, destroyed a similar portrait because he found the work "unflattering". Breslauer, a famed millionaire New York rare books dealer who once bought a Gutenberg Bible, destroyed the painting because of Freud's "unsightly depiction of his double chin," the London Daily Mail reports.

The destruction of the multimillion dollar painting by Breslauer, who died at the age of 86 in 2004, was discovered by a curator researching works painted by Freud between 1939 - 1954 for a retrospective exhibition taking place in London next month. Freud is reportedly extremely distraught at the discovery - as are Breslauer's heirs, no doubt.

A rare Francis Bacon triptych that has never before been seen in public and has never been offered at auction is expected to fetch over $20 million during Christie's Contemporary Art Sales in London at the end of the month. Painted in Paris in 1975, Three Studies for a Self Portrait (above) is similar in character to the Bacon triptych that sold for $28 million at Christie's last month. Also starring in the sales on June 30 through July 1: Lucian Freud's Naked Potrait with Reflection, one of the most important works by the artist ever to be offered at auction, est. $20 million - $30 million; Jeff Koons' Balloon Flower (Magenta), 1995-2000, the most important Koons work ever offered at auction in Europe, est. about $25 million; Andy Warhol's Nine Multicolored Marilyns, est. $5 million - $7 million; and Jean-Michel Basquiat's Trunk, painted in 1982, est. $2 - $3 million.

On May 13, Christie's New York will stage an incredible Post-War and Contemporary Art sale that could realize close to $400 million. Several museum-quality works are on offer among the 57 lots, and Christie's expects several records to be set. Highlights include Francis Bacon's 1976 Three Studies for Self -Portrait, estimated at $25 - $35 million; a morbidly obese Lucian Freud nude, billed as the most important Freud painting ever offered at auction, also est. $25 - $35 million; Willem De Kooning's 1975 Untitled IV, est. $10 - $15 million; several major works by Andy Warhol including his 1962 Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot), est. $6 - $8 million, and his 1986 Self-Portrait, pictured here, est. $2.5 - $3.5 million; Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1987 Victor 25448, est. $4.5 million - $6.5 million; and many more. Some story-hungry members of the press may be rooting for an art market crash, but we're not buying it.

Damien Hirst is now the world's most expensive living artist, which is quite a title considering the price many pieces are going for at auction these days. America's Jasper Johns held the honor previously, on and off since the 1980s, along with Willem de Kooning from 1989-1997. Damien Hirst officially took the title when his Lullaby Spring pill cabinet sold for $19.1 million at Sotheby's, but he didn't take it directly from Jasper Johns. Just 24 hours earlier artist Lucian Frued had the title (yep, for just one day) after his "Bruce Bernard" portrait sold for $16.5 million in London.