Sotheby’s Hong Kong presents results of autumn sale of Southeast Asian paintings

ART AUCTION RESULTS SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG PRESS RELEASE

We present you with the latest press release from Sotheby’s Hong Kong on their autumn sale of modern and contemporary Southeast Asian paintings:

SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY SOUTHEAST ASIAN PAINTINGS 2010 AUTUMN SALE

TOTALS HK$78 MILLION / US$10 MILLION

(high estimate: HK$45 million / US$5.7 million*)

THE HIGHEST TOTAL FOR A VARIOUS-OWNER SALE

IN THIS CATEGORY AT SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG

************

ACHIEVING NUMEROUS ARTIST RECORDS AT AUCTION

“FATHER OF INDONESIAN MODERNISM” –

S.SUDJOJONO’S A NEW DAWN SOLD FOR AN IMPRESSIVE

HK$10.7 MILLION / US$1.4 MILLION

OVER 4 TIMES THE HIGH ESTIMATE

FILIPINO ARTIST RONALD VENTURA ’S NATURAL-LIES FETCHED

HK$2.5 MILLION / US$326,000

9 TIMES THE HIGH ESTIMATE

Other artist records were set for works by Indonesian artists including

Gede Mahendra Yasa, Ay Tjoe Christine, Samsul Arifin, Hendra Gunawan and Filipino artist Andres Barrioquinto, among others

Following the tremendous success of the Spring sale, Sotheby’s Autumn sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings today commanded a stunning total of HK$78 million / US$10 million (high estimate: HK$45 million / US$5.7 million*), the highest sale total for a various owners sale in this category at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.  Today’s sale provoked active participation in the room and over the phone.  There was particularly strong interest in top-end Southeast Asian contemporary paintings, which led to two auction records set for two artists – S. Sudjojono , Father of Indonesian Modernism, and Filipino artist Ronald Ventura.

MOK Kim Chuan, Sotheby’s Head of Southeast Asian Paintings, commented: “Top end Contemporary works fetched strong prices today with many pieces bringing multiples of their pre-sale high estimates.  Among Modern works, the supreme highlight was the S. Sudjojono, a museum-quality example of the artist’s work which spurred a fierce bidding battle among nine bidders before selling for HK$10.7 million, a price which was four times the top estimate and set a record for the artist at auction.  These results confirm the strategy of using conservative estimates to attract competition and let the market set the price level.”

The sale of 20^th Century Chinese Art and Contemporary Asian Art continue in the evening.

Attached please find the relevant press releases, top-ten list as well as an image of the saleroom for your use.  Should you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact Sotheby’s Hong Kong Press Office on +852 2868 6755 /Winnie.tang@sothebys.com.

* Estimates do not include buyer’s premium

Regards,

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Press

KN/KCE

Related Topics: Southeast Asian art, market watch – auctions, business of art, collectors

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Is globalisation of the art market slowing down? The Economist reports

GLOBALISATION CHRISTIE’S ART AUCTIONS

Globalisation in the art market may be slowing down according to an article published recently in The Economist. In spite of the growing numbers of artists and buyers from locales ranging from Africa to Asia, May sales in New York were dominated by American artists.

The article states:

“At the Christie’s sale, the first of the two main evening auctions, three-quarters of the buyers were American”.

With the prices of work by top Asian artists still lagging behind big-name American contemporaries, it may not come as a surprise that Asian artists are sometimes underrepresented in main and evening sales abroad. That is not to say that Asian artists do not fair well in Asian markets. In Artprice’s Top 100 Hammer Price List, only seven Asian artists crack the top 50. Not surprisingly, all were Chinese artists with sales in Beijing or Hong Kong. Numbers such as these suggest that there is still some preference for homegrown artists.

The Beijing sale of Chen Yifei's 'Thinking of History at My Space', 1979 landed him at #69 on Artprice's Hammer Price List

Even so, the unusual dominance of American artists at Christie’s New York sales this past spring did not go unnoticed.

“This is the most significant post-war and contemporary art collection ever sold at auction,” Christie’s Amy Cappellazzo said afterwards. “It was a quintessential American sale.”

We at Art Radar Asia wonder if this is really so surprising? There are few Post War Asian artists represented in these sales because Asian artists have only received attention in the last twenty years. For contemporary artists it is a different matter. While there is no doubt that some Asian artists, and those from other emerging countries, are now well known, their prices still lag behind those of top contemporary American artists. And, of course, main sales, and evening sales in particular, feature only the very best, usually most expensive, works.

Read the full article here.

EH/KN

Related Topics: business of art, collectors, market watch – auctions, market watch – globalisation

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• Contemporary art market in Asia now bigger than US for first time says Artprice – November 2009
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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.

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LLH/KCE

Art professionals cautiously optimistic about Asian art – AFP

HONG KONG AUCTION SALES

The art world is eyeing Hong Kong for the latest litmus test of how prices are holding up amid the global financial crisis, with experts cautiously upbeat about the future of the Asian market.The frenzied scramble to own contemporary works has fizzled quickly as economic realities have started to bite.

London felt the chill in October when two big sales fell short of previous highs just a month after a record-shattering auction of works by Damien Hirst.

Earlier this month in New York, Sotheby’s slashed prices for much-hyped contemporary art works and Francis Bacon’s 1964 “Study for Self Portrait” failed to sell in a Christie’s auction in the city.

At the beginning of October, Sotheby’s autumn sale in Hong Kong, which included modern and contemporary Asian art as well as classical works, brought in 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars (142 million US dollars), about half of the pre-sale estimate.

In a sale of modern and contemporary Asian art at the Sotheby’s sale, 40 percent of lots remained unsold and the figures were even worse for 20th century Chinese art, with 65 percent of lots failing to find buyers.

Now attention turns back to Hong Kong, where Christie’s is set to launch its five-day autumn sale from November 29.

Art prices have adjusted down 30-50%

Anders Petterson, managing director of London-based art market research company ArtTactic.com, said the contemporary art market has already corrected significantly since hitting peaks earlier this year.

“Prices have been adjusted down 30-50 percent depending on the work and the artist. This brings us back to 2006 levels, but prices are likely to have some time to go before we have reached an equilibrium. This will also depend on how deep the recession in the United States and Europe will become,” he said.

“The correction we see in the Western art markets will spread to emerging markets, with both China and India already starting to feel the pinch.

“Upcoming sales in Hong Kong and in India will give us a better sense of the market sentiment.”

Despite the barrage of gloomy economic news and the falling prices, Jonathan Stone, Christie’s international business director for Asian art, remains upbeat about his upcoming sale.

“It’s a slightly new world we’re in compared with six months ago and I think we need to see where we are. I think overall I am cautiously optimistic.

“There are some very good works and I do believe that any time there are good works will always provide solid results,” he said, adding that price falls could make it easier for collectors to come back into the market.

Stone picks out one of the highlights of the upcoming auction in Hong Kong as being a group of works of Chinese contemporary art from the collection of American filmmaker Oliver Stone.

Another star lot is Zeng Fanzhi’s “From the Masses, To the Masses,” expected to fetch about 30 million Hong Kong dollars.

Expanding interest in Indonesian and Filipino works

For Hong Kong-based art consultant Kate Evans, it is difficult to predict which way the market is heading in the short term, although she presents a more nuanced picture of the scene.

“There is still a market for Asian art, albeit at much lower prices,” she said. “Collectors’ interest is expanding into much more affordable Southeast Asian contemporary art, particularly Indonesian and Filipino art.”

This was shown at the Sotheby’s October sale in Hong Kong, where the modern and contemporary Southeast Asian paintings sale was a high point.

In that category, Indonesian artist I Nyoman Masriadi’s “The Man From Bantul (The Final Round)” sold for almost eight million Hong Kong dollars, a world record for contemporary Southeast Asian art.

Despite the bracing economic circumstances, Hong Kong gallery owner Katie de Tilly reports that business has been brisk in the past couple of months but adds: “We know it’s going to slow down a lot.”

Value in Vietnam and Thailand

The owner of 10 Chancery Lane Gallery said there was great value in works from countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia and that the Chinese market will remain strong in the long term.

She said the price correction was “a really great opportunity to buy because important works will always be important works” and there is more room to negotiate.

Time of buying opportunities

Evans, who runs the Art Radar Asia advisory firm, agreed, saying: “I believe there is a strong case for buying now because the long-term trends support an increase in value for Asian art in particular.”

ArtTactic.com’s Petterson is also positive, saying he sees “this as a time of opportunities, there will be less competition, less hype”.

“The market will revert to focus on the art and its cultural and historical value and importance, so for the long-term player this is a buyer’s market,” he said.

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Sotheby’s to Move Asian Art Auctions to Hong Kong from New York – Bloomberg

 

AUCTION MARKET WATCH Sotheby’s said it will cease holding auctions of Asian contemporary art in New York and “consolidate” them instead in Hong Kong, with biannual sales in the Asian city.

Sotheby’s said it will organize dedicated auctions of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian art in April and October in Hong Kong, starting next year. Its Sept. 17 sale of such Asian works in New York will be its last in the city, said Rhonda Yung, Sotheby’s Hong Kong-based spokeswoman, in an interview. The decision doesn’t preclude sales of batches of Asian artworks at its New York, Paris and London auctions, Yung said.

The move by the U.S. auction house tracks that of London- based rival Christie’s International, which held Asia’s first major evening sale of the region’s contemporary works in Hong Kong in May. Artist Zeng Fanzhi’s painting of masked Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution era fetched a Chinese contemporary-art record of HK$75.4 million ($9.7 million) at Christie’s inaugural sale.

“It’s a shrewd decision,” said Tian Kai, a Beijing-based contemporary-art dealer. “While Europe still has the top collectors of Asian contemporary art, being in Hong Kong shows Sotheby’s commitment to a growing market.”

Tian said Christie’s has about 60 percent of the Asian contemporary-art auction market, while Sotheby’s has 40 percent. Christie’s has a “good but not insurmountable” lead over Sotheby’s in that market, Tian said.

“It has become increasingly evident that contemporary Asian works have consistently fetched the highest prices at auction in Hong Kong,” said Kevin Ching, Sotheby’s Hong Kong-based chief executive officer, in a statement.

See (in new window)

• original story on Bloomberg
• more auction news

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