Surprising sell-through rates for Chinese art recorded in London’s February auctions

CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART MARKET

Chinese Contemporary Art Lots Sell Out in London

Major auctions held in February 2010 in London featured impressive sales of Chinese contemporary art works reports Jing Daily with surprisingly high sell-through rates compared with works from other markets. The rising presence of Chinese collectors and bidders underpins the phenomenal performance in sales and the momentum is expected to continue claims the newspaper.

Ian McGinlay, Head of Client Development for Asia at Sotheby’s, expects mainland Chinese collectors to become increasingly ubiquitous — and forceful — at auctions of contemporary art, with these buyers going for works by “blue-chip” Chinese artists like Cai Guo-Qiang, Zhang Xiaogang, Zeng Fanzhi and others.

Look for work by Wang Guangyi at upcoming Sotheby's auctions

As Jing Daily reports, the overall sell-through rate of the four auctions held by the three auction houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury — 90.5% (19/21) — was well above the overall performance of the entire aggregated sales.

At Sotheby’s, 100% of Chinese works (9/9) sold; at Christie’s, 82% (7/9); at Phillips, 100% sold (3/3).

For more of the original coverage, Jing Daily has more.

 Related posts:

• Colin Chinnery, director of ShContemporary, on future of Shanghai Art Fair – interview Artron – January 10
• Performance of Asia tops West for first timers at auction in 2008/09 -November 09
• Contemporary art market in Asia now bigger than US for first time says Artprice – November 09
• Liquidity propels prices, Chinese Political Pop is back – Sothebys Contemporary Asian Art Auction 2009 Hong Kong – October 09
• New auction houses with new strategies open in Singapore – October 09

LLH/KCE

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