Upcoming Asian Auctions in Hong Kong

Le-Min Lim of Bloomberg is looking forward to the upcoming auctions starting on October 3rd in Hong Kong.  Lim reports expectations are high as are the number of consignments compared to six months ago.  The expectations are for $100 million in sales. The auction will see 2,300 items go under the hammer, including a blue and white Ming bowl with estimates in the range of over $5 million (see image).

The Hong Kong auctions come on the heels of the recent Asian sales in New York which were considered very successful.

Lin states

Buyers are preferring antiques over contemporary-art pieces, believing older artworks are better stores of value with the economic recovery just beginning, said Lu. Auction companies such as Sotheby’s and Christie’s International face sluggish sales in Europe and the U.S., where economies are in a recession caused by the credit crunch. The estimated value of London’s October contemporary-art sales has dropped 81 percent from 2008.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale last year, held three weeks after Lehman’s Sept. 15 failure, raised HK$1.1 billion, half its forecast. The region’s benchmark Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific Index has risen 40 percent in the past six months.

Consignment Increase

A 50 percent increase in consignments at this auction compared with the company’s sale six months ago is another sign of Asia’s art-market rebound, Kevin Ching, Sotheby’s chief executive, said in a telephone interview.

“When people believe the market is recovering,” said Ching, “then they will have no problem parting with the good stuff because they will get a good price for it.”

Auctions of Asia-themed items in New York earlier this month did well, said auctioneers. More than 70 percent of Sotheby’s lots sold, netting $19.3 million, while 83 percent of lots at Christie’s Chinese ceramics auction found buyers. Single-owner auctions were exceptionally successful at this New York series of Asia-art auctions, with buyers for nearly every item previously owned by the late philanthropist and physician, Arthur M. Sackler, statements from Sotheby’s and Christie’s show.

To read the full article by Li-Min Lim, click HERE.