Jonathan Stone, chairman and international head of Asian art at Christies, told CNBC, "I think we are pretty confident about Chinese demand, the Chinese have been considerable players in the art market in recent years, I came back from some sales we had in London a couple of weeks ago and there was no slowdown in Chinese buying."

Patrick Armstrong, managing partner at Armstrong Investment Managers, told CNBC, "Our base view is that Greece will stay in the euro zone for the next few years, the longer you extend the horizon the more likely it does exit but with that extension in horizon there are more ways to deal with the contagion."

It is that time of the year when Ukraine's parliament has its annual bust-up, this time violent scuffles broke out between ministers over a bill that would allow the use of the Russian language in courts, hospitals and other institutions, at least one lawmaker ended up in hospital.

Haris Lambropoulos, economics professor at Greece's University of Patras, said the recapitalization of Greek banks is "absolutely critical". "The austerity measures in Greece have created a huge social cohesion problem for the Greek people, and on top of that, Greek businesses are dying," he said.

James Price, head of international residential development at Knight Frank, told CNBC, "There are different levels in the market, for some of the more mass market homeowners overseas there may well be issues around them having to sell and get out, but in the upper end of the market there is still a lot of solidity in that."