March 9 (Bloomberg) -- A young woman, naked above the waist, sat amid 440 pounds of colorful threads at the Volta art fair in New York last week.

She was the head-turning feature of a $30,000 installation (model not included) by Thai artist Surasi Kusolwong at the booth of the Hoet Bekaert gallery from Ghent, Belgium.

The gallery, which took out a $30,000 bank loan to cover the costs of exhibiting during the Armory Show week, came prepared to promote its artist, meet new clients -- and lose money.

“We had no expectations in terms of sales,” said co-owner Jan Hoet Jr., sipping white wine from a plastic cup. “We are a young gallery and it’s important for us to show in New York.”

Many of the 77 dealers presenting solo artist shows in Volta’s aptly titled “Age of Anxiety” echoed that sentiment. While sales were meager, the young and trendy came in droves -- to ogle art with attitude.

All over Manhattan, high-value sales of contemporary art were hard to come by at last week’s eight fairs, including the blue-chip Armory Show, that form New York’s largest contemporary-art event of the year.

At the Armory Show, which featured 243 exhibitors from 55 countries, the number of transactions fell compared with last year, dealers said. Lower-priced pieces -- those costing less than $100,000 -- moved better than pricier works.

At Mexico’s OMR gallery, collectors bought eye-catching sheets of acrylic, resembling folds of gold fabric, by Peruvian artist Aldo Chaparro. They were priced at $8,000. Two conceptual pieces by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer were a harder sell at $100,000 and $120,000.

‘Star Wars’

“My book is full of cards from people interested in these two works,” he said Jaime Riestra, an OMR partner. “Money is not behind the interest. New York collectors are gloomy and scared.”

At New York’s Lombard-Freid Projects, Michael Rakowitz’s Saddam Hussein helmets, inspired by “Star Wars” and lined with recycled G.I. Joe toys, were a hit. The gallery sold five, as of Friday, at $1,500 a pop.

“They are like candy,” said partner Lea Freid. “What boy doesn’t remember ‘Star Wars’?”

Many booths at the Armory Show were empty on Thursday afternoon. At London’s powerhouse White Cube gallery, salespeople sipped champagne and read newspapers as a $500,000 spot painting by Damien Hirst hung unsold. Graham Steele, a White Cube staff, said yesterday that the work has since found a buyer; Steele declined to give the price.

“People who were in it to flip it are pretty much gone,” said art adviser Carol Dorsky. “The hedge-fund people are not buying.”

At Volta, ADN Galeria from Barcelona showed hyper-realist sculptures of George W. Bush meditating on a straw mat and Dalai Lama wielding a Kalashnikov rifle. The works by Eugenio Merino, priced at $40,000 each, were unsold on Thursday night.

$3,000 Nukes

Nuclear missiles made of acorns, twigs and toys by Lisi Raskin were idling at Riccardo Crespi’s Milan gallery despite the asking price of $3,000 for each work.

“The moment is not so good,” said Crespi. “It’s not four years ago.”

The die-hards who continued buying included Miami collectors Mera and Don Rubell, Whitney Museum trustees Raymond Learsy and Melva Bucksbaum, and New York and Moscow real estate developer Janna Bullock.

“Our budget is to spend as little as possible,” said Learsy, who bought a Byzantine-style mosaic of Barack Obama made of 30,000 cereal flakes by Ryan Alexiev and Hank Willis Thomas. Its asking price was $20,000 at the Philadelphia-based Cerealart gallery at the Armory Show.

Unfinished Look

Over at the Pulse Contemporary Art Fair, the Rubells bought several paintings by Cordy Ryman from New York’s DCKT Contemporary. The works, priced between $3,000 and $8,500, are painted on wood and have a rough, unfinished look with exposed nails and staples.

At Volta, Bullock picked up a $12,000 painting by Christian Curiel at Paris-based Galerie Baumet Sultana.

“If you want something, you have time to think about it,” said retired psychologist Pat Loeb, who collects Cy Twombly and Donald Judd along with younger artists Sophie von Hellermann and Rachel Harrison. “You don’t have to make snap decisions.”

     (Katya Kazakina is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter of this story: Katya Kazakina in New York at kkazakina@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 9, 2009 00:10 EDT