For the most part, they did come. They just didn't really spend.

That's what Seattle dealers are telling me about what happened in their booths during Art Basel Miami Beach last week.

"Personally it was probably our worst art fair (and I've done several over
the years) although I remain surprisingly cheerful," Gail Gibson reports.

Greg Kucera: "I sold a Whiting Tennis within five minutes of the opening at ArtMiami. The only bad thing about it was that it gave me a sudden, unexpected expectation ... And it turned out to be only an illusion."

Randy Wood with SOIL: "Attendance was good, but sales were definitely down."

A late sale as Platform was packing up Sunday evening brought the guys close to even, but profit wasn't happening, says Stephen Lyons: "All in all we knew it was going to be a very different year and it proved to be. Good to be home."

Only Billy Howard at Howard House stands out—he called this year's turnout "great" (really? was it really great?), and says he's going back for sure.

According to Kucera, collectors explained up front that "we're just not buying right now." Some, he described, "bothered to tell me 'how many millions' they'd lost...which doesn't inspire sympathy in me at all."

He continued his analysis, with predictions: "Mostly, there were lots of people who had made their reservations for hotels and flights six months ago, as we had (before the world as we know it fell apart), and it was simply unthinkable to let them go to waste. I think the fairs in LA, NY, and Chicago over the next several months will be very hard hit by the sense that the art world, like much of the real world, is on hold. Many collectors were very philosophical about their finances, the hope of Obama, and the future of collecting. There seemed to be a realistic sense that a period of weeding out is needed. Who's surprised? Particularly the dealers in NY have been very hard hit as the vortex for all of this is there."

And now, your final Andy Pixel image: A favorite of Eric Fredericksen among the offerings in Miami, Olaf Breuning's untitled sand sculpture commissioned by the Sagamore Hotel on Miami Beach.