2012 in review: Art's year of deep (and shallow) pockets

Over the course of 10 days in November, art reached a milestone — if that's the right word for it — when more than $1 billion was handed over at the fall auctions in New York in exchange for Modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures. The big story was that art made since 1945 accounted for the lion's share of that, with contemporary art dwarfing Monet, Picasso, Matisse and friends at more than $867 million in sales. Words like "spectacular" and "stunning" peppered the news accounts.

By Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Critic

December 15, 2012