In a chorus-like manner, complaints about the decline of the market for old masters have been piling up for years.

The same reasons are given again and again: loss of knowledge, scarcity of material and a greed for speculation that fuels the market for modern and contemporary art, which shies away from the slower pace of older art.

In London, Brexit is added, with additional import costs, excessive bureaucracy and delays in transport affecting all sectors.

The decision by the Basel trade fair operator MCH to cancel the Masterpiece Fair for art and antiques, which has been held in June since 2010, the traditional London high season for the old master trade, and the cancellation of the summer fair in Olympia are fueling concerns about the old master business and the location London as the center of the European market.

Gina Thomas

Features correspondent based in London.

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Doomsayers interpret the fact that the two major auction houses in New York in January will have a much better offer, both qualitatively and quantitatively, than in London in December, as another death knell.

But often it is just the place of residence of the consignor that determines the point of sale.

Many top lots are American-owned this time, including William Turner's tribute to the poet Alexander Pope on the occasion of the destruction of his mansion (estimate up to $4 million) and Canaletto's view of the poet Alexander Pope, estimated at up to $3.5 million, at Christie's on January 25 Rialto Bridge from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Despite all the prophecies of doom, there is reason for hope.

The American real estate entrepreneur Mark Fisch and Jacques-Louis Isoz, descendant of a family of Swiss confectioners from whose collection important works are being offered for sale at Sotheby's, argue against the argument that there are no new collectors in this field due to a lack of knowledge.

Isoz, who died in 2015, was 15 years old when he discovered his passion for pastel painting during his training as a confectioner in Rouen, which he later financed through the trade.

Among the two dozen sheets from his collection that will be offered in the well-stocked drawing campaign on January 25th, Rosalba Carriera's portrait of the English scholar Joseph Spence (40,000/60,000) and Jean-Étienne Liotard's apple still life (up to 1.8 Millions).

Isoz had sold a portrait of Jean-Baptiste Perronneau to the Getty Museum in order to be able to afford this trophy.

Mark Fisch entered the arena as a novice in the mid-1990s and has gathered the knowledge to build a collection of Baroque paintings that Sotheby's claims is unsurpassed today.

The January 26 sale of ten paintings, estimated at a total value of up to $60 million, due to the divorce from Rachel Davidson, includes works by Orazio Gentileschi, Georges de La Tour and Valentin de Boulogne as well as Rubens' bloodthirsty Salome with the head of the Baptist from the year 1609. The picture was considered lost until 1987.

In 1998 it achieved £5.5m, spectacularly surpassing the Rubens record four years later with proceeds of £49.5m for the Massacre of the Innocents.

Sotheby's put the price of the Salome at $25 million to $35 million.

Re-attributions or re-attributions, such as the restored Bronzino portrait at Sotheby's, boost the market, as do paintings that have surfaced from obscurity.

This includes the oil sketch of "Saint Jerome" by Anthony van Dyck, found in a barn, from which Sotheby's is expecting two to three million dollars.