New York Asian Week in Review

Kelly Crow of the Wall Street Journal reviews the results of the last weeks Asian auctions in New York by Christie's and Sotheby's. Crow reports the sales totaled $55.7 million between to the two auction houses and exceeded the high estimates of $41.3 million.  That alone is a positive sign, but the large auctions are still not back to where they were or perhaps where many are used to.  Last years sales totaled $157.2 million, over $100 million difference.  That represents a lot of lost commissions for the two large auction houses.

Crow notes many positives beyond the total values in comparison to last years sale, but one segment that did not perform as well, or was not represented well was Asian contemporary art. She stated Western collectors who were responsible for past increases in Asian contemporary art were missing. The Asian buyers passed on the contemporary segment staying with more fundamentally sound and traditional Asian fine and decorative art which typically carries less risk.

Crow of the Wall Street Journal reports:

This week, Chinese buyers dominated the bidding, but they competed with collectors in Indonesia, Korea and the United Arab Emirates. Western collectors, credited with pushing up prices for contemporary Asian art five years ago, largely stayed home.

Sotheby's and Christie's both offered pieces owned by the late psychiatrist Arthur M. Sackler, who founded a namesake museum at Harvard. At Sotheby's, an anonymous Asian collector paid $1 million -- nearly six times the high estimate with fees -- for a pair of Huanghuali-style cabinets from the 17th century. Monday, a private Asian collector spent $362,500 at Christie's for Mr. Sackler's bronze ritual food vessel dating to the 12th century B.C., 10 times its high estimate. The total combined take from Mr. Sackler's Asian holdings was $7.8 million.

Chinese ceramics had the strongest showing of the week. Sotheby's sold a milky celadon jade vase with floral carvings from the Qing dynasty for $926,500, tripling its high estimate. At least four bidders also fought over a fuschia vase owned by collector Gordon Getty, which went to an anonymous bidder in the salesroom for $902,500, exceeding its $350,000 high estimate.

Over at Christie's, several bidders fought over a 1778 wooden inkpaste box carved with poems. An Asian buyer got it for $1.4 million, four times the high estimate.

To read the full WSJ review, click HERE.