Asian Art Heading Home

The Economist has a very good review of the recent New York auction sales as well as the May sales in London of Asian of fine and decorative art.  The article points out the strong market created by Asian buyers, both collectors and dealers who are bringing the art back to Asia.  At the recent sales the showrooms were full of buyers from Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.

The article points out the large number of Asian bidders, but also mentions the high prices realized for some art which was not considered by many experts to be of the highest quality.  Although, it is noted, and as is usually the case, the highest prices were realized by the best pieces. The article states the May London sales were satisfactory, but if the items were considered less than high quality bidding was mild.  That changed at the recent NY sales.

The Economist reports

In the last round of sales, in London in May, buyers were both skittish and picky, shying away from anything they believed was over-priced or of less than stellar quality. Four months on, confidence has visibly returned to the market. Both auction houses reported exceptional sell-through rates; only a small proportion of the works were returned unsold. Lot after lot exceeded its top estimate as newly rich agents, dealers and collectors from South-East Asia fought for the chance to bring ancient treasures home.

Of the top 20 lots sold at Christie's on September 14th and 15th, 15 were carried off by Asian buyers, six of them private bidders. At Sotheby's later the same week, private collectors from Asia were even bolder, taking 12 of the top 20 lots. Only one lot was sold to a Western buyer: a 17th-century Buddhist painting of a multi-headed and multi-armed figure, it had been consigned by a Japanese family that acquired the picture before the second world war. It was bought by a private European collector prepared to pay $530,500, far above its top estimate of $150,000.

The results were particularly surprising because not everything on offer was of the highest quality. At Doyle, a small New York auctioneer that piggybacked on the bigger houses with a Chinese sale of its own on September 14th, two quite ordinary lots were bitterly fought over. Both came from the collection of Hugh Grant, a lawyer and philanthropist (his father and namesake had been mayor of New York from 1889 to 1892). Bryan Chow, a Hong Kong agent who proved an aggressive bidder at both Sotheby's and Christie's sales, bid $590,000 (the hammer price, before taxes and commission) for a Jiaqing-dynasty moulded porcelain vase with bats and dragons under a white glaze, estimated at $30,000-50,000. A Hong Kong competitor, William Chak, proved even bolder a few moments later, bidding $550,000 for a slightly older, 18th-century, Qianlong-dynasty blue-and-white vase that Doyle believed would sell for no more than $2,000-3,000.

To read the full Economist article, click HERE.