In these cold winter days, it seems unbelievable that less than a month ago, much of the contemporary art world was basking in almost 30C at what is now the world's second-largest art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach.
But despite the idyllic temperatures and the organisers' confidence - 20 parallel fairs opened this year bringing a total of 1,155 dealers - there was an air of tension before the fair opened. Many dealers wondered how long the market could hold as the credit crunch bites.
Meanwhile, even well-off American museums questioned the state of acquisitions when artists barely out of art school are attracting five-figure prices.
It was good news for dealers, with sales stronger than ever. For museums, the weakness of acquisition budgets and the need to woo capricious collectors and artists - as the Tate has so successfully done with Damien Hirst - remains ever present.
For museums in Miami, looking enviously at UK state funding, the issue is burning. The Miami Art Museum, housed in a dreary municipal building in the city centre, unveiled plans for a $208m Herzog and de Meuron building on a disused park. The problem is that is has no funding, nor much to put in it unless one of Miami's collectors obliges.
Director Terence Riley, former chief architecture curator at MoMA, New York, is confident that he will persuade collectors, in particular for six original commissions and eight "survey" galleries.
Still, it must have been a blow to learn that Rosa de la Cruz, who has traditionally loaned to museums, plans to open a 2,500-sq-metre space in the Wynwood district of Miami in 18 months' time.
Jane Morris is an arts journalist and editor
But despite the idyllic temperatures and the organisers' confidence - 20 parallel fairs opened this year bringing a total of 1,155 dealers - there was an air of tension before the fair opened. Many dealers wondered how long the market could hold as the credit crunch bites.
Meanwhile, even well-off American museums questioned the state of acquisitions when artists barely out of art school are attracting five-figure prices.
It was good news for dealers, with sales stronger than ever. For museums, the weakness of acquisition budgets and the need to woo capricious collectors and artists - as the Tate has so successfully done with Damien Hirst - remains ever present.
For museums in Miami, looking enviously at UK state funding, the issue is burning. The Miami Art Museum, housed in a dreary municipal building in the city centre, unveiled plans for a $208m Herzog and de Meuron building on a disused park. The problem is that is has no funding, nor much to put in it unless one of Miami's collectors obliges.
Director Terence Riley, former chief architecture curator at MoMA, New York, is confident that he will persuade collectors, in particular for six original commissions and eight "survey" galleries.
Still, it must have been a blow to learn that Rosa de la Cruz, who has traditionally loaned to museums, plans to open a 2,500-sq-metre space in the Wynwood district of Miami in 18 months' time.
Jane Morris is an arts journalist and editor
