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The art market has been bubbling with record sales during the year 2013 in Asia, New York and London thanks to highly sought contemporary art pieces or ancient Chinese calligraphies and objects to present rosy prospects for 2014 but behind such heavenly screen lay the dire fact that the traditional market is nearing its death.

Such assumption might be dubbed as ridiculous but a clear analysis of the art market clearly shows that its development relies mainly on the active participation of about 3000 billionaires around the world who have engaged in intense battles to acquire what are described as the best art pieces of today under the auspices of cunningly driven marketing operations driven by the leading auction houses and galleries.

Mesmerized by the prospect of making consistent profits for what they buy and anxious to enhance their social status, most of these billionaires who know little about art have needed the help of advisors in order to reap the best pieces offered on the market thus allowing the big auction houses and galleries to register incredible returns.

Now, paintings and works of art valued at under 100,000 USD seem not worthy to buy on the market where many 18^th Century pieces of furniture fail to sell at over 1000 USD in Paris or elsewhere, meaning that tastes have drastically changed in less than a decade. As a result, many antique shops in Europe or in the U.S have been forced to close due to a lack of customers.

Still, the medias have been blindfolded in hailing the good astonishing results recorded on the art market whose good health has usually depended on the activity of average dealers now about to disappear.

For instance, the ratio of unsold lots in Paris and elsewhere has often been negative during the year 2013, a fact that remained unnoticed so far especially as it was counterbalanced by several good results achieved for the rare pieces offered on the market.

In fact, scores of antique dealers in France have been giving up their activity during the past year while the ongoing economic crisis has affected many of their counterparts in Europe and in the U.S to leave the art market in the hands of Christie's, Sotheby's, some Asian auction houses and the big galleries selling mainly contemporary pieces.

Thus, the traditional art market is set to die to leave the place to a private club formed by those billionaires who have transformed it into a kind of casino for themselves with the big auction houses and galleries serving as croupiers and from where true collectors are progressively barred.

In this respect, several important art critics have already denounced the transformation of the market which has become the ground for erratic speculative purchases on the part of wealthy people who have little consideration for aesthetics in art.

Until the death in 1973 of Pablo Picasso, a true artist by essence, the art market was at that time a modest entity where prices were somewhat stable. Then came Andy Warhol and his marketing concept whereby art could be multiplied with the help of assistants, a scheme that worked beyond dreams to pave the way to a flurry of records prices recorded on the market during the 1980s.

The fall of the Berlin wall was later accompanied with emergence of newly rich Russian buyers who helped the market reach a new status. Then came the incredible economic development of China which produced new billionaires in almost no time.

As a result, the art market was deeply transformed under the rule of major auction houses and galleries while the traditional market frequented by true art lovers was progressively left in ruins.

Now, what will happen in the art market in the new year after the incredible returns made by Christie's and Sotheby's in 2013 ?

It is not difficult to predict that the big auction houses will be more aggressive than ever to win new clients among the billionaires of the planet while they'll increase their competition with major dealers. They respectively recorded 1 billion USD and 925 million in 2012 and even more in 2013 to the dismay of many gallery owners whose future is now at stake.

The secondary market has already paid a heavy price following such fiery offensive which for instance saw Christie's offering pieces directly from artists in their November 2013 sale of ink works in Hong Kong. A sign that the battle against dealers is going to grow intensely in 2014.

In addition, Christie's will try to increase its share of the market by taking advantage of  the problems met by Sotheby's with Dan Loeb, its shareholder who has been aggressively campaigning for deep managerial reforms. As a result, Sotheby's has been losing ground in its battle against Christie's following the departure of Tobias Meyer while Bill Ruprecht, its president, has been quite unsettled by Loeb's attacks.

The other pending question is about those billionaires who might decide to sell pieces they acquired five or ten years ago in order to make the profits they expected but no one knows whether their moves will have positive effects on the market since auction houses will have to keep its momentum.

Auction groups are therefore forced to consolidate their returns at the highest level of the market after neglecting secondary sales of pieces sold between 100 and 15,000 USD to let online entities such as E-Bay or Amazon grab a big share of this sector.

Auction groups thus did not play the game in favour of art lovers in choosing to sell highly priced pieces to a restricted panel of clients to whom they offered incredible guarantees while seeking to sell some lots with the help of guarantors offering a minimum price on these before their sale.

With such practices, Christie's, Sotheby's and other big groups have been engaging themselves into a dangerous battle with the prospect of being confronted to some deranging snags as this happened with the Poly group of China which recorded over 40% of unpaid lots by buyers who failed to abide by their bids..

Finally, in courting billionaires whose respect for art is simply considered through the prism of profit and in turning their backs on true collectors, the major auction groups have blatantly taken a risk in transforming for good the art market into a branch of the financial world.