Design auctions buck the downward trend

The auction market for design is booming, aided by new online tools and record prices for the categorys most sought-after names.
Sothebys seemed to take a risk in May by offering, within its flagship Impressionist and Modern evening sale in New York, a monumental bookshelf by Diego Giacometti. But the late 1960s commission for the Paris publisher Marc Barbezat, decorated with patinated bronze accents, sold for $6.3m with premiummore than double its top estimate and a record for the designer.The