As an epoch, the twentieth century was a short one. It started in August 1914, when European civilization began its long suicide, which continued throughout the century as its empires disintegrated. The epoch ended in 1989, when American, British, French, and Russian armies ended their occupations of Europe.

Did the present epoch—the 'twenty-first century'—begin in 1990? or 2000? No; it began in September 2001. The headline-getting event was, of course, the mass murders by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001. The other shoe was dropped when the Enron corporation's frauds were made public. The failure of one company is not epoch-making, but the widening ripple of distrust in American capital markets—the very engines of American wealth and prosperity—is.

The art market's twentieth century ended in 1989 too

It is not coincidence that the art market collapsed in 1989. The close of epochs is marked by shifts in capital: Art tracks capital closely. Art is—despite the cant and twaddle of its PoMo apologists—a deeply conservative activity. Works of art make up the trinkets, the ornaments of potlatch: the ritual display of abundance by the rich, for the rich. When capital moves, so do art markets.