The Frieze Art Fair is drawing the right kind of people this year, even if the art market is showing little more than hope (and even that's debatable). Roman Abramovich - billionaire, Francis Bacon fan - has been seen scoping out the merchandise. Gwyneth Paltrow is at the show, too. Both were at the VIP preview (separately), and David Ganek made an appearance as well. Ganek is a hedge fund manager and art collector, and his wife, Danielle wrote a god-awful novel about the art business in Manhattan.

The Frieze Art Fair runs through October 18 and occupies 70,000 square feet in Regent's Park. In attendance are 165 gallery owners from 30 countries, all eager to take advantage of collectors excited to be at Europe's largest art fair. But, they have their work cut out for them. Auction sales are down between 70 percent and 80 percent from last year, and that's usually a pretty good sign of how the art market as a whole is doing.

There is some action at Frieze this year. Artist Jim Hodges has an exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris that's captured the attention of a museum. Stefan Edlis, Jean Pigozzi and David Roberts - all prominent collectors - have been seen at the fair. Art dealer Marianne Boesky moved 13 paintings from a new series of 15 watercolors by Barnaby Furnas that depict the capture and execution of John Brown, the Civil War abolitionist. Prices ranged from $25,000 to $30,000.

After the dismal situation at Frieze in 2008, there's a collective desire for this year to be better. While wishing for an art market recovery probably won't make a difference, the sentiment itself is comforting.

Once the undisputed land of conspicuous wealth and consumption, the United Arab Emirates is being squeezed by a large drop in oil prices. It's a shame this comes after the region's addiction to art has become fully entrenched. Sotheby's is planning its first contemporary art sale from its new Doha, Qatar branch on March 18, 2009 – also the opening day of the Art Dubai fair. Hell, it's enough to make you "scream" (see photo).

This looks like the triumph of ambition over common sense, but Sotheby's was probably too far into its Middle Eastern endeavors before the bottom fell out on the region's finances. And with Bonhams and Christie's already in town, Sotheby's had little choice but to follow.

The UAE has committed quickly to the art scene. Abu Dhabi is working on building a Louvre, and is erecting a Guggenheim. Last year, art auction revenues reached $34.9 million, up 70 percent from 2007. But, the upcoming auction should be tricky, particularly with the poor performance of the sector last fall in more established markets, like New York, London and Hong Kong.

In around two weeks, we'll see if Sotheby's will be able to make this new auction house work, or if it will fall victim to the greater recession-triggered decline in the art market. The Mei Moses All Art Index dropped 4.5 percent last year. This seems like a modest amount, but you need to remember that record-setting sales continued through the middle of the summer. Last May, Roman Abramovich was a billionaire with a new Francis Bacon piece in his collection. Today ... we know he feels pain, too. The second half of the year wiped out the first half's records and pulled prices down further.

It's a tough time to count on the market to make Sotheby's Doha a success, but the market doesn't give us choices.

[Photo: "El Grito" by Julio Aguilera]

Now that's a gift. I have always wanted someone to give me the moon. Now they can.

Chelsea Football Club Owner and famous spender Roman Abramovich has given his girlfriend Dasha a truly celestial gift: 100 acres of land on the moon.

The land was purchased from The Lunar Embassy, which offers "deeds" to an acre of moon-land for around $20 apiece, as well as "Extraterrestrial Domain Names" and an opportunity to have your name written on an "Archival Disk" that will be stored on the moon.

Lunatic: Someone who has been staring at the moon too long and has lost their mind.

[via CrunchGear]

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has yachts to spare but did he really give a friend his 328-foot yacht Le Grand Bleu? The Sun reports that Abramovich handed the yacht, which is worth over $138 million, over to his  business lieutenant Eugene Shvidler as a thank you. Abramovich had problems with the yacht last fall but surely that's no reason to ditch this beauty and while I'm sure Shvidler is a fine man and a good friend, I still sense there is another reason. There can only be one answer, Abramovich needs room in his stable for an even grander ship.

Last night we mentioned the eBay auction of a huge yacht. The sale of the 405-foot yacht has people speculating that Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich might be the buyer of the as-yet-unbuilt yacht which was, at $168 million (with an $85 million downpayment), the most expensive eBay auction ever. From Moscow News to Forbes, speculation is swirling about whether the auction is a real deal or not. Last time I checked, the yacht was still up for auction on eBay and is still listed on the 4Yacht website. BYM News spoke with Craig Timm of 4Yacht and found out that the auction had indeed not resulted in a firm sale and that the yacht is still up for bid. No comment though on whether Roman Abramovich is actually among those interested in buying.