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Dealers also have an incredible amount of power and control in the art market. With the waiting lists for art they are able to control its prices and values to some extent although Velthuis points out that they actually may not have as much control as they think they do. What is certain is that the dealers' careful strategies increase their symbolic capital greatly if not also their actual capital. Symbolic capital cannot be ignored as one of the major forces in the art market. The article about the auction of Lehmann Brothers art and "ephemera" also clearly demonstrates that there is a disconnect somewhere between the stock market and the art market. Though Lehman Brothers had gone bankrupt and the global financial crisis was well underway, the art market remained so strong enough that it was able to attract large numbers of buyers to participate in a successful auction of Lehman's belongings in which many items sold for far more than their estimated values.
While the evidence for a connection between the global financial market and the global art market has not been particularly strong or abundant, I still think there is an element of linkage. If stock market crashes affect wealthy investors who are also the primary purchasers of expensive art, then it seems inevitable that the art market would also be affected. I think whatever connection there may be, it is very complex and hard to collect evidence for, or perhaps the whole system has not yet been subjected to sufficient examination. It would be very hard to predict the movement of the art market in the future, but I'm sure it will continue to have ups and downs according to its unusual set of factors. As the saying goes, "there's no accounting for taste", and perhaps this can be applied to the art market in the sense that it seems there may be no accounting for its movements.
Here is an interesting recent article about the art market and the table shown in the article: http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Is-art-still-a-safe-bet-for-investors/24508 