The art trade has always believed it represents a special relationship between culture and money. What has this got to do with the impermeable, apolitical bubble that is the international art market? “Art no longer provides that centrality.”Insiders who monitor the performance of the art market tend to fixate on how much art is being sold by the ultra-rich and how share prices and interest rates affect the confidence of the ultra-rich people who buy art. But the wider world still matters. And that world is getting a lot more volatile in ways that can affect the composure and concentration levels of participants at every level of the art market.