Key line right here, sneakily hidden below the fold:

Collectors who view artworks as financial assets have flinched at the rising costs of doing business and the diminished ability to get favorable loans to buy paintings they hope will appreciate in value.

Like everything else in the world, ghouls financialized the art market and have been buying art on fucking margin as though an object of creative expression can be treated like soybean futures. In truth the art market has been the subject of an absurd speculative bubble. The fallout of the bubble popping is going to be hilarious for the wealthy assholes who’ve been inflating it for years, but it is gonna suck for artists too, and I do feel badly for them.