Ben Lewis’s new documentary ‘The Great Contemporary Art Bubble’ You can now buy this film on DVD from my website www.benlewis.tv It investigates the reasons behind the boom and bust of contemporary art. The Great Contemporary Art Bubble BBC Four. Monday 18th May. 9.00pm. The last five years have seen an unprecedented craze for contemporary art. Contemporary art prices rose by an average of 800% while works by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Mark Rothko sold for record-breaking prices of £30 million plus. Art critic and film-maker Ben Lewis spent 2008 following the contemporary art market; travelling to art fairs, auctions, museums and the offices and homes of billionaire art collectors. He spoke to dealers, auctioneers, gallery-owners, art market analysts and art collectors trying to find out the reasons behind the greatest rise in the value of art in history. He says: I didnt like what was happening in the contemporary art marketMuch of the art was mass produced, repetitive and commercial. Collectors bought it for investment and stored vast amounts of it in warehousesAnd the special privileges our society gave to art and artists were being exploited by some of the worlds richest people to make yet more money. Everywhere Ben went he was told the contemporary art boom would go on forever fuelled by a new passion for art from the worlds super-rich. But he found other reasons for the boom unusual market practices, speculation, secrecy and tax breaks involving the whole art …