It’s been a rocky year for Emanuel’s Endeavor, the talent and live-events group that owns Frieze, the art fair franchise set up by Sharp and Slotover and managed by Siddall. In September Endeavor pulled the plug on a stock market launch just hours before the bell (believing it to be undervalued), and in March it returned a $400m cash injection from the Saudi Arabian government’s investment fund following the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. It emerged, meanwhile, that while Sharp and Slotover retain a 30 percent share in Frieze, they have the option to cash in next year. Yet this corporate wrangling didn’t affect action in the aisles: while the New York event hasn’t recaptured the excitement attending its debut, it did avoid the weather calamities that have blighted recent editions; London sales were reportedly brisk; and the celeb-filled inaugural venture into Los Angeles was judged successful.