Bulletin | June 2026
This month's Bulletin opens with a bombshell. In June, Pace Gallery – one of the art world's mega galleries – announced it was dropping nearly 40 percent of its artists and 20 percent of its staff. The news was significant, the conversation it provoked was brief, and the questions it raises are far from resolved. We examine what happened, how it happened, and what it reveals about a gallery model built on the assumption of perpetual growth. We then turn to Art Basel, where a quieter but equally telling story was unfolding: fewer collectors, more doubts, and a fair beginning to reckon with its own version of the question of growth.
Bulletin | May 2026
This month's Bulletin turns to New York, where the May sale season delivered record prices, familiar headlines, and a great deal of noise. The question we ask – and the one most of the coverage didn't – is what are the signals within it all. We look at the works that broke records, the ones that didn't quite, and what the mood in the room told us that hammer prices couldn't. We examine the day sales, where the real market lives, and the fairs, where galleries revealed more about their strategies than they perhaps intended. The conclusion is less dramatic than the headlines suggest, and more instructive for it.
Bulletin | April 2026
This month's Bulletin opens with a hypothesis, one that emerged from a recent Back Room conversation, and that this edition sets out to test. The proposition: that a new generation of collectors is organising itself not around categories, trends, or artists, but around quality. And that this shift, quiet but significant, may be changing how the market works in ways we haven't yet fully reckoned with. We then cross the Atlantic for the second of our Letters from America, in which a New York-based art advisor reflects on three museums interpreting what cultural ownership means.
Briefing | Q1 2026
The Briefing is a quarterly forum where experts unpack the world's major art events from vantage points only insiders can access. This quarter's edition takes the form of three videos, released over three weeks. The first examines the London auction season – what drove the results, what they reveal about quality, and what the generational wealth transfer might mean for the market ahead. The second looks at the gallery sector, exploring closures, downsizing, and the emerging business models beginning to take shape. The third turns to art fairs – how the model is changing, and which conversations we should be having but aren't.
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Bulletin | March 2026
This month opens in London, where the auctions delivered results that demanded attention – strong totals, full rooms, and a market that appeared, at least for now, to mean business. We look at what drove the numbers, from the mechanics of attractive estimates to the theatre of a white-glove sale. We then turn to the latest art market report, moving beyond the headlines to examine three findings the press largely overlooked: a shrinking pool of top-tier buyers, a more transactional market, and the mounting pressure of operating costs on galleries at every level.
Bulletin | February 2026
This month’s Bulletin opens in Art Basel Qatar, reflecting on a fair that deliberately blurred the line between spectacle and commerce. We consider what the event signals about Qatar’s cultural ambitions and galleries’ strategic positioning in the region, and what it reveals about the art fair model we have quietly come to accept. We then turn to the sudden closure of one of London’s most enduring and respected galleries, exploring what its collapse tells us about expansion, competition, and risk in today’s mid-tier gallery sector – and the human cost that market volatility leaves in its wake.
Bulletin | January 2026
After seasons of stalemate, buyers and sellers finally started talking again in late 2025 – but not every result tells the same story. This edition of The Back Room Bulletin looks beyond the headlines to examine why attractive estimates mattered, how depth of bidding signals real confidence, and what Wool, Brown, and Basquiat reveal about perception and value. It also explores gallery closures, emerging business models, and what to watch as the market recalibrates in 2026.