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Disastrous sale sends Sotheby's shares falling by 37% in one day Ed Pilkington in New York Friday November 9, 2007 The Guardian Photograph: AP The auction house Sotheby's suffered an almost 40% slump in its share price yesterday in the wake of a disappointing sale of Impressionist and modern art, prompting speculation that the art market bubble is starting to burst. After 11 years of steep growth in the value of fine art, the drop in Sotheby's stock by about 37% in the course of one day sounded alarm bells. Analysts were particularly struck by the fact that Vincent van Gogh's landscape, Wheat Fields, possibly his last finished work, painted in 1890 two weeks before he committed suicide, was left unsold; Sotheby's had valued it at up to $35m (£17.5m). Article continues