Art Market Cooling?

 The Financial Times has a couple of quick and interesting posts to their online collecting page, noting some possible signs of cooling in some sectors of the art market.  The article note two areas, one Chinese mainland buyers as well as Russian art.

The FT reports

The spring auction season in Hong Kong was watched with more than usual interest this year against the backdrop of fears that mainland Chinese were faltering in their art buying. Indeed, the market is cooler: in the equivalent week last year, Christie’s racked up US$515m in sales of art, jewellery and wine; this time, its total was a little over US$352m. The Asian contemporary art sale made US$46.7m, over its top pre-sale estimate, with 91 per cent sold by lot. Its top lot was for Chinese favourite Sanyu, whose “Blue Chrysanthemums in a Glass Vase” almost doubled expectations at US$6.1m. The equivalent sale made US$63.4m in 2011 – a jump of 68 per cent over the previous year. Trees can’t grow as high as the sky, says a Chinese proverb.

 and reports on Russian art

Last month’s sales of Russian art also showed some cooling. Sotheby’s May 28 session made £10m, with an anaemic sell-through rate of 65.8 per cent; last year the equivalent sale totalled more than £14m. Christie’s on the same day made £8.3m – down from the £10m it earned in 2011. Specialist auctioneer MacDougall’s had an even tougher time, only selling 44 per cent of its Important Russian Art sale, garnering £9.3m. But William MacDougall was upbeat. “It was not our strongest week but, none the less, it was reasonable; works on paper did well and we achieved three world records,” he said.

Source: The Financial Times