Some art dealers worry there’ll be a serious hangover from DAMIEN HIRST’s end-of-an-era sale of 218 artworks for $198 million in mid-September, just as Lehman Brothers was collapsing.

“People who bought contemporary art are in a lot of trouble, because some of them are leveraged and need to sell,” says dealer DAVID NAHMAD. Hirst is something of a leading indicator of the

contemporary-art market. If he slumps badly, it could affect other artists’ sales, too. One Chelsea dealer who has a client with four Hirsts the client is considering selling (with no takers

as yet) worries that “nobody knows what a Hirst is worth.” So far, none of the September Hirsts has shown up at Christie’s or Sotheby’s. But when Sotheby’s offered two Hirsts on November