One of the more counterintuitive aspects of the art market is that it doesn’t always behave in sync with financial markets. I don’t need to tell you that this month has been filled with dread about the economic future. Contrary to what you might think, times of financial crisis—and let’s be clear, we’re not anywhere near a financial crisis yet—can be good for the art market. We saw it rise steadily from 2009 to 2015. Weeks before stocks bottomed out during the 2008 global financial crisis, the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé sale set a new record for a single-owner sale. The lesson is that when financial markets seem risky—and both the equity and bond markets have been signaling a lot of risk lately—rich people who still generate excess cash have a tendency to spend money on high-quality art from proven artists.