The top end of the art market has finally fallen into line with the rest of the financial world after months of resisting the effects of the credit crunch.

Prices plunged in the last quarter of 2008, according to a survey conducted by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

The quarterly poll of surveyors found that art prices in the £50,000-plus ($72,125-plus) range had fallen particularly heavily since the demise of Lehman Brothers, the US bank, signalled the deepening of the economic downturn.

More than 40 per cent of surveyors reported overall price falls in the period, compared with nine per cent that reported rises.

The contemporary art sector suffered in particular because of the high volume of job losses in the financial services sector, underlining its reliance on high City salaries. Forty-one per cent more surveyors reported a fall than a rise in prices of contemporary art.

Chris Ewbank of Rics said the downturn in the art and antiques market had not been nearly as dramatic as in other areas of the economy. “The contemporary art sector has soared over the past few years and we are now in the midst of a correction,” he said.

Some parts of the market, such as jewellery and silver, had remained stable over the same period, because they were regarded as safe havens in times of economic uncertainty, said the survey.

But there was a slowdown in the middle and lower tiers of the antiques market, with supply drying up as a result of the collapse in housing market activity.

It is not an entirely gloomy outlook for surveyors: one polled, Whitton & Laing from Devon, said: “Bankruptcy work is increasing faster than other work is reducing.”