It's been reported in the FT that Christie's - the art auction institution - may be going under.
The speculation is based on the fact that at a value of €4.7bn, Artemis, the holding company belonging to Francois Pinault, is carrying too much debt.
In 1998, Pinault is rumoured to have paid $1.2 billion for Christies but may now need to offload this asset.

If Christie's is worth, say, €500m, that's €4.7bn of debt backed by less than €3.5bn of assets.

To make matters worse, auctions at Bonhams, Sotheby's and Christie's haven't had a great year forcing Christie's to already cut some departments.

The recent financial crises hasn't helped drive enthusiasm for art but even so, with even a mediocre amount of long term planning, Christies could once again be a leading light on the New York, London and Paris auction scenes.