Damien Hirst isn't the least bit troubled about last week's disappointing art auctions, or that one of his own works, a painting of four skulls called "Beautiful Artemis Thor Neptune Odin Delusional Sapphic Inspirational Hypnosis Painting," found no takers. It's actually a good thing! Hirst now says the art market was overpriced up until recently, and that his painting wasn't worth $3 million anyway: "It was bought from me less than a year ago at half the price. In a way it's good. We are looking at more realistic prices. People who bought things are not going to sell them that day. That is what an artist wants, for people to hang the works on their wall." Perhaps this means that Hirst, who is now reportedly worth more than $350 million, is planning to issue refunds to collectors who bought in at the peak? Not so much! "Art is worth what the next guy is prepared to pay," he says. But he does plan to adjust prices when he unveils his next batch of work. "If I want to sell new work, I'll price it lower."

You would think that after the dismal performances of the contemporary art sales at Christie's and Sotheby's earlier this week, sellers might recognize the need to reduce reserve prices if they were to have any hope of selling anything. At Phillips de Pury & Co.'s auction last night, estimates set before the markers unraveled remained in place, despite the fact that the auction house had tried to persuade people that the figures were now too optimistic. Sellers "had a luxury of eight years of the climbing prices,'' said Phillips senior partner Michael McGinnis. "They were not receptive.''

The art world is suffering from diminished expectations for the obvious reasons. At last night's Christie's auction, their much-vaunted Francis Bacon work "Study for Self-Portrait"—estimated to go for $40 mil—didn't sell. In fact, nobody even bid, the NYT reported. It was like an Ebay auction from hell! (Last May, a Bacon sold for a $86 mil.) Thank goodness for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and his precious Basquiat. His painting, Untitled (Boxer) sold for $13.5 million to a mysterious phone bidder. The New York Observer pointed out last week that Ulrich wanted to sell it for between $12 and $16 mil and didn't even ask for a guarantee; the painting was "bought in 1999 for just a couple million dollars." Oh, and Lehman CEO Dick Fuld didn't get as much as he wanted for the sale of his drawings collection. Tough luck—try Ebay.http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=6242240&page=1

Looks like Christie's is out $6.5 million. At auction last night, Richard and Kathy Fuld's collection of drawings failed to reach the $20 million that Christie's had guaranteed the couple. The sixteen works fetched just $13.5 million, in keeping with the lackluster response to many other lots on the block. (A 1964 self-portrait by Francis Bacon, estimated at $40 million, didn't attract a single bidder.) One of the Fulds' drawings that fetched a decent price was an Arshile Gorky that Matthew Marks paid $2.2 million for, although that still barely hit the low estimate. But just so you know, it wasn't as if there was any connection between Kathy Fuld selling the art and the spectactular downfall of her husband's career. "I've been selling things for the past few years," Kathy told a reporter recently. "But nobody cared until now." [NYT, ABC]

Poor failed investment bank Lehman Bros. is selling $8 million worth of art that used to inspire I-bankers to create beautiful works of finance, but now is just sitting around waiting to be liquidated in order to pay off creditors. Sad. But also appropriate! Because Richard "Dick" Fuld, the ex-CEO who ran Lehman into the ground, is auctioning off some of his own personal art collection tonight—and he was smart enough to get a $20 million guarantee for it, just before everything went to hell!:

It will be a big night for disgraced Lehman CEO Dick Fuld and his wife Kathy: The couple's collection of postwar drawings goes up for auction at Christie's this evening. The Fulds reportedly made arrangements to sell the pieces over the summer—and the auction house gave them a $20 million guarantee, a decision it probably now regrets—although news of the sale emerged four days after the investment bank went bust. Works by Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Arshile Gorky, and Agnes Martin will be available to those who still have a few million to spare (and who aren't too deterred by the Fulds' bad mojo). Meanwhile, some of the art that Dick once enjoyed seeing on the walls of Lehman Brothers will also be coming to market in the near future: The bankrupt bank is selling $8 million worth of pictures currently languishing in warehouses in New York and Paris.

Not even the presence of high-profile collectors like Steve Martin, Valentino, and billionaire Eli Broad (who dropped $8 million on works by Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, and Donald Judd) could save last night's Sotheby's contemporary art sale from being a big disappointment. Twenty paintings, including a Lichtenstein and a Damien Hirst, were left on the block, and the total tally was $125.1 million, far below the conservative presale estimate of $202.4 million. One genre that's apparently recession proof: John Currin and his trademark boobies. His "Nice 'n' Easy," an oil of two curvaceous naked women, went for a record $5.4 million. [NYT, Bloomberg]

Poster Boy: an anonymous ad remixer in the New York subways. Art: is it what he does? Culture jamming: a term too annoying to use any more, though everyone knows what it means. Sell out: is he bound to, eventually? Questions: he asks them. Britney: slut, psycho, or star? Maria: is she really poopy? Man: why is he flying on outside of train car? Poetry: why aren't I good at it? Five new Poster Boy pieces: after the jump, ya dig:

Skittish art collectors with shrunken fortunes continue to balk at the prospect of picking up expensive artwork: At last night's sale of impressionist and modern art at Christie's, works by Matisse, Monet and Renoir had no takers, and the auction house's owner, French billionaire François Pinault, looked on as sluggish bidding led to lots going for bargain prices or not at all.

Honestly, art buyers, why even show up to auctions if you're going to cowardly balk at multi-million dollar estimates? At last night's Christie's sale combining the 19th and 20th century art collections of Park Avenue widow Rita Hillman and property heiress Alice Lawrence, works by Manet, Cézanne, Renoir, Rothko, and de Kooning were left on the block, making an overall tally of $47 million, not even close to the presale estimate of $103 to $150 million.

Richard Fuld, the disgraced CEO of Lehman Brothers, will officially leave the firm by the end of the year. (With no bonus, not surprisingly.) In other Fuld family news, the couple's $20 million collection of Abstract Expressionist drawings will be auctioned off at Christie's a week from today. [Bloomberg]

Unsurprisingly, there aren't so many people wanting to invest millions in pretty (or not so pretty) pictures at the moment: At Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art auction last night, only 64 percent of the lots sold. Still, it's not quite time to get the violins out: The overall tally was $223.8 million, which included $37 million for Henry Kravis's Edgar Degas ballerina pastel and $60 million for a Kazimir Malevich painting. [Bloomberg, Reuters, previously]

Here, you see, an ad agency employee named Tor Myhren has designed a poster that asks the question: What if Barack Obama was a white dude named Chet who probably calls his girlfriend "Lovie," and John McCain was an elderly black man? I'll tell you what: McCain rallies would be much more interesting. It's a neat poster, but don't let it fall into the wrong hands (the hands of South Carolina). Larger version after the jump? Okay:

Now is not a good time to be in the auction business, especially if your business involved selling overpriced items to people who have just lost all their money in the market. Sales were extremely slow at Sotheby's "Exceptional Wines" auction on Tuesday night: Only 70 percent of the 190 lots were ultimately auctioned off, bringing in $2.2 million, a far cry from the $5.1 million the auction house had been hoping for. Sotheby's isn't alone, of course: Business has been dismal at nearly every major auction from London to New York in recent weeks. But organizers for next week's Impressionist and Modern art sale at Sotheby's are already bracing for the worst, especially after one of the auction's priciest pieces was unexpectedly withdrawn by its owner. Now they just have to hope Henry Kravis doesn't pull out, too. He's planning to unload his Degas pastel of a seated ballerina, and is hoping for as much as $40 million for the work (he paid $28 million for it in 1999), and we all know that financiers need every penny they can get these days.

Remember when tattoos were edgy? Probably not, unless you're old enough to remember when, say, Williamsburg was edgy, and in that case we're tired of hearing from you. The point is that the declining edginess of tattoos is a natural barometer for the declining edginess of our weak-ass American society in general. And by that measure, we are weaker than ever. Hello, user-friendly chains of soothing tattoo parlors in malls! Even though more than a third of youngsters now have tats, it's occurred to the marketing geniuses that the untapped, un-inked market is huge! Sure, teenagers all have Chinese characters spelling out "I AM GAY" (don't tell them!), but what about timid suburban middle-aged moms? Enter several new investor-owned chains of mall-based tattoo shops, where anyone will feel perfectly safe getting a star on their butt while their husband browses the Sports Authority:

If you're looking for a cheap but stylish place to put up your relatives this holiday season, you now have a new option to add to the list of possibilities: the Guggenheim. The "theanyspacewhatever" exhibit, which opens today, features a "Revolving Hotel Room," an art installation that doubles as an actual hotel room. The space sleeps two and rates for the room start at just $259 a night, making it as affordable as the Holiday Inn in Midtown.

Publicity-seeking artist Geoffrey Raymond is downtown today with his painting of former Fed chief Alan Greenspan, in case you happen to have nothing to do and you'd like to add your commentary to his portrait of the "Fallen Prince." [Dealbreaker, previously]

This is a chair. It's by Neptunes producer and N.E.R.D. Pharrell. It's on exhibit in a Paris gallery. Because the chair refers to... you know... sex, that makes it art. The seat is all velvety. [Oh No They Didn't]

Future President of the United States of America Sarah Palin is already proving to be a valuable inspiration to our nation's patriotic art community! Or at least to raggedy, drug-ridden "street art" types in elitist coastal cities. It's not just the happy-go-lucky "Frightening Prospect" posters you see here—we've found three more examples as well, making it an official trend, with room to spare! Click through to view the collected opinions of America's great artistic minds:

Campbell's Soup is suing a New York restaurant for putting up an entire wall full of pictures of Warhol's famous soup can image, which Campbell's says wrongly implies the restaurant is "affiliated" with the soup company. Warhol's ghost laughed and laughed and laughed. [P6]