A safe haven?

With headlines leaden with gloomy economic news - the stockmarket entering bear territory on 3 July, the Dow Jones more than 20% down from its October peak, and June's figures from the Halifax showing that house prices in the UKare down 6.1% on last year (meaning the value of property is declining at a rate worse even than that of the last housing crash of the early 1990s) - the question on everyone's lips in the wine bars and restaurants of Cork Street and Mayfair is twofold: will the art market follow and, if not, might it provide a safe haven for the canny investor's capital? The last ...