Chinese works of art have two centers of gravity. One in Beijing and the other in Taiwan. After 60 years, Reuters reports that the two are beginning to share information and access:

The first ever visits will give officials at Beijing’s National Palace Museum, in the Forbidden City, a close-up look at some of the 654,000 pieces of jade, scrolls, pottery and bronze ware the Nationalist Party took away to Taiwan during the civil war.

Taiwan National Palace Museum officials will head to Beijing, tentatively in mid-February, for a chance to examine some of the 600,000 not-so-spectacular pieces of art that were left behind and are now stored in China’s capital.

Taiwan, China to Pore Over Rival Treasure Troves (Reuters)

With so many Russians living in London, one estimate puts the number as high as 400,000, dealer Peter London thinks there’s room for a semi-annual Russian art fair that coincides with the Russian auctions, so says This Is London.

Mr London said of Russian art: “It is the biggest explosion in terms of price and desirability and collectors. Art fairs in general were suffering dramatically, but specialist events - such as Frieze for contemporary art - were bucking the trend, he said. “Contemporary art is pretty well covered but there was nothing for Russian art apart from the regular auctions. We also want it to be a social occasion because there are not a huge number of social events for the Russians in London.”

But, wait, didn’t the Russians just go broke? What sense is there in a Russian art fair when the Russian money machine has sand in the gears? London has an explanation for that too:

“These people have been affected badly by what’s happening in the Moscow Stock Exchange - about 75 per cent has been wiped off the value - but many still have a few million in the bank. The top end art has bottomed out and is not finding the stratospheric prices it was, but pieces from £10,000 to £60,000 are still selling well.”

Finally, the site gives us a little context on the growth:

The Russian market has grown rapidly in recent years. The total global sales eight years ago were £7.6million. That figure rose to £85million in 2005 and £128million in 2006. Last year Sotheby’s and Christie’s alone sold art worth £180million.

Art Dealer Sets Up Fair to Draw Wealthy Russians (This Is London)

Bloomberg prognosticates on Christie’s Hong Kong week of sales beginning today:

Christie’s International’s Asia President Andy Foster says the company’s Hong Kong art auction that starts this weekend will feature “the finest selection in years” of antiques, paintings and gems. Top collectors like Robert Chang agree — but say they probably won’t buy.

“Market conditions are bad,” said Chang, the doyen of Hong Kong’s Chinese antiques, who set an auction record for a Qing Dynasty ceramic in 2006 with his sale of an imperial bowl for HK$151.3 million ($19.5 million). “These are quality lots, but whether they can sell in this climate is anyone’s guess.”

Christie’s, the biggest art auction house in Hong Kong, will offer 2,500 artworks, antiques and gems over five days that it expects to fetch HK$1.75 billion.

“I feel confident we have done our best to show what a fine collection we have; it’s now up to the market to respond,” said Foster in an interview. “We are in the middle of a downturn, so it’s hard to predict what the results would be.”

Foster said Christie’s has convinced some sellers to lower the reserve price on their lots to speed sale, though the only way for buyers to find these bargains is to turn up for the auctions. He aims for at least half the lots to find new owners.

The five-day sale begins on Saturday evening with an auction of Chateau Latour wines. Top lots feature at the contemporary-art evening sale on Nov. 30 and the antique auction on Dec. 3 [ . . . ]

Lu Feifei, a Shanghai-based art dealer who bought Emperor Qianlong’s jade-hilted saber-and-scabbard for HK$59 million and his parade armor for HK$14 million at Sotheby’s October auction, said he hasn’t got any orders from clients to buy at Christie’s auction and has no plans yet to make purchases of his own.

“Everyone is affected by the current mood in the market,” said Lu, 31. “It may be a tough auction; people are cutting out what they can do without.”

Christie’s Girds for ‘Tough’ Asia Sale as Rout Abides (Bloomberg)

The Russian Art Sales Feel the Bite of the Bear Markets in Commodities

Bloomberg reports on the Russian sales in London:

Sotheby’s took 16.1 million pounds for two sales, against Christie’s International’s 3 million pounds and Bonham’s 1.7 million pounds. Three of the four auctions missed the companies’ own presale low estimates. [ . . . ]

Some collectors and dealers blame the weak results on unrealistically high prices auction houses set amid a global financial crisis that triggered a 65 percent drop in the Russian stock market in the last six months.

“We need to get past this otherwise the market risks stagnating,” said Samarine.

[ . . . ]

“We’re at an awkward moment where the market doesn’t want to buy at the old prices, and sellers don’t want to accept the new reality,” said London-based art dealer Ivan Samarine.

(More results after the jump.)

Bonhams sold one-third of the 244 lots offered for about 1.7 million pounds on a presale low estimate of 5.8 million pounds. None of its top lots sold.

Sotheby’s sold 59 percent of the 55 lots of 19th-century and 20th-century Russian paintings, netting 14.1 million pounds against a presale low estimate of 17.5 million pounds.

The Sotheby’s sale of Imperial works of art bucked this trend with 94% of the lots sold, 78% those went for above the high estimates.

Princess Collection Shines at London Russia-Art Sale (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg takes a close look at London’s Russian art week that lies just over the horizon. Of course, they pitch the story as the first test of the Russian market since the collapse of the commodity economy.

There are four major sales–Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonham’s–plus one house that only sells Russian art:

MacDougall Arts Ltd. has the most ambitious lineup. Its total estimate for the week is 21 million pounds to 33 million pounds. That’s more than the estimates at Christie’s International and Sotheby’s, which is the Russian art-market leader in total annual sales.

MacDougall’s head makes a case for why Russians would spend money on art. He’s not alone. Others have pointed out that Russians are acutely accustomed to expropriation and loss. That puts a greater emphasis on objects of value, especially works of art.

“Many Russians still have large amounts of money they need to invest,” said William MacDougall, director of the auction house. “Would they choose stocks or bonds? Even bank accounts now look risky. Paintings do not go into default.”

Others make a brave case that Russian collectors are doing better than their counterparts in the west:

“Russian collectors have not been so hard hit by the financial crisis as collectors in the West,” the Russian National Museum, a private gallery headed by Moscow collector, Alexander Ivanov, said in a statement.

All will be revealed next week but pay close attention to the fate of Goncharova (above, left) at Christie’s and the Imperial works of art at Sotheby’s. Like the Chinese, Russian buyers love anything with an connection to their Imperial past. Also, just for fun, here’s Mikhail Larionov’s Reclining Nude, one of the highlights at Sotheby’s.

Yves Saint Laurent Owned Statues The Chinese Consider Cultural Treasures; Christie’s Says The Papers Are In Order.

These two heads come from the Zodiac Clock in Beijing’s Imperial Summer Palace. They were removed by French and British troops who looted the place in 1860. Now that the Chinese have a little extra money, they’ve been buying the various heads back. The Telegraph picks up the story:

A number before now have come up at auction in the west and Hong Kong. All five of those have been bought by Chinese benefactors or a government art fund and returned to the country in the last eight years, but as their historical importance to China has become clear, the price has risen.

Saint-Laurent’s pair - the rabbit and the rat - have had estimates of pounds 6-8 million each put on their value by Christie’s, which has put them up for auction with much of the rest of the late designer’s collection in Paris in February. [ . . . ]

Chinese state media have reported that the figures were offered to the government in a private sale for $20 million - more than £12 million - five years ago, but the price was turned down as too much.

(More after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Bloomberg covers London’s Asian art sales:

Sotheby’s was one of three auction houses and nearly 50 commercial galleries offering works during the 11th annual Asian Art in London, running through Nov. 12. The event came at a time when losses on the world’s stock markets and contracting economic growth have begun to reduce sales of Asian art. [ . . . ]

[Sotheby's] 341-lot sale fetched 3.3 million pounds with fees, with 67 percent of the material finding buyers. No work sold for more than 200,000 pounds. [ . . . ]

“There is still demand for high-quality works, but at a price,” said Giuseppe Eskenazi, whose Mayfair gallery specializes in Chinese art. He said at the moment collectors were hesitant to pay more than 200,000 pounds for pieces. “They know that prices may well fall over the next six months and they’re prepared to wait,” said Eskenazi, who added that collectors were also aware that the pound was sliding in value against other currencies.

Christie’s 258-lot auction fetched 5.3 million pounds with fees against a pre-sale estimate of 3.3 million pounds to 4.8 million pounds. Sixty-eight percent of the material successfully found buyers.

“People have become more selective,” said Christie’s London-based Chinese art specialist Ruben Lien. “Things need to have a good provenance because buyers are scared of fakes. And they have to be sensibly estimated. Sellers are going to have to be more flexible.”

Lien said that the strengthening value of the renminbi against sterling had encouraged Chinese buying at this London auction. “Around 30 percent of the material went to mainland Chinese buyers, 10 percent up on last year,” said Lien. “We’re seeing new buyers from China, and existing Chinese clients are upgrading their collections.”

Auctioneers and dealers said it was difficult to sell routine-quality items in the current environment. On Nov. 6, Bonhams held an auction of 358 lots of Chinese art, mostly priced at less than 20,000 pounds.

Buddha Statue Withdrawn From London Art Sale as Buyers Balk (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg turns Le-Min Lim’s Asia Week preview into a gloomy take on the correlation of the art and financial markets. The big news in the article is Artprice.com’s Pierre Capelle’s claim that the art market correlates to the financial markets but lags “by three to four days.” A misquote? It’s hard to see how such a periodic market as the art market could be in such close correlation to a constant market like the financials. Even a Three-to-four month lag would seem tightly linked and closer than any previous claims.

Art prices won’t escape the effects of the drop in financial markets, said Pierre Capelle, manager of econometrics department at Artprice.com. “The art-market movement is completely co-related to the stock and currency markets,” said Capelle, lagging behind by “three to four days.” The Artprice Global Index, which tracks sales of fine-art works, fell in the January to July period, the first decline in six years, said Capelle. Based on Artprice.com’s online survey of its members, about 49 percent polled say sentiment on the economic climate is “unfavorable.”

How does this impact the Asian art market? Dealers there are mixed in their opinions:

“The outlook is dimming for Chinese contemporary art,” said Tian Kai, a Beijing-based art dealer. Buyers may attend auctions to “find pieces at bargain-basement prices,” he said. [ . . . ]

Still, buyers may be surprised by the resilience of the Asian art market, said Shirley Ben Bashat, who runs Opera Gallery in Hong Kong. She said traffic at her gallery unexpectedly increased after Lehman’s bankruptcy as people moved money from the stock market to art. [ . . . ]

“I wouldn’t rule out a surprise,” said art-dealer Tian, 34. “Asia’s art market might be more resilient than thought.”

`National Treasure’ May Support Sotheby’s Sale as Markets Slump (Bloomberg)

Results from the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

New York’s Asia Week is over but the reckoning is just beginning. Here’s the data from the sales of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at both houses. The data doesn’t include Christie’s sale of snuff bottles in either year.

The interesting numbers are the rise in overall value and the average price. Though the overall value rose slightly more than 10%, the average price only rose 3%. This is especially interesting when the slight decrease in sell-through is factored in.

The chart below gives the real answer. Two pieces bid far above the estimates account for the most of the increase in value suggesting that the top end of the market is propping up the lower end where prices would seem to be weakening. Just look at the shift in proportion of the top ten lots to overall sale value from 35% to 45%.

If you’re looking for the most desirable lot in the sale, it has to be this brush pot that sold for a huge multiple of its estimate.

The International Herald Tribune’s Art Market Reporter Covers Asia Week

Art market reporters have been predicting a crash for years now. There are good reasons for this but they mostly all under the competitive pressures of journalism and a certain desire in the press to mock the wealthy. But Souren Melikian’s wrap-up of certain sales during New York’s Asia Week opens with a gleeful account of a few bad sales:

A massive cleansing of the art market is beginning. At Sotheby’s, which was the first to test the waters here since the financial tempest broke out, more than 43 percent of the Chinese and Japanese works offered on Tuesday crashed unsold, and at Christie’s larger and decidedly better sale on Wednesday, the failure rate was still 41 percent.

Just for the record, the comparable sales at Sotheby’s of a year ago had a sell-through rate of 56.4 % against last year’s 51%. So it went up. At Christie’s the sell-through was 63% vs. 70% a year ago. There it went down for the three sales that Christie’s reports together.

So Sotheby’s actually sold more of their lots this year. With slightly more lots, Sotheby’s had a 15% increase in lots sold. Christie’s had a slight decline. All of these numbers merely show that Melikian is focusing on the aspect of the sale that was not a “crash.”

Had he looked at the sale totals, there would have been a different story. Christie’s Fine Ceramics and Works of Art sale dropped 10.6% from last Fall’s Asia week: $19,342,550 vs. $17,298,788. Sotheby’s fell further on lower numbers: $7,657,238 down to $6,348,432. Less money for the same number of lots or more means the prices are falling in the aggregate.

Melikian blames the fall on the absence of young dealers from the mainland and Hong Kong:

As they surveyed the room, the more experienced members of the Christie’s team involved in the oversight of the main session may have had a sinking feeling. The young dealers from mainland China, so noticeable in the March sales for their big appetite for downmarket porcelain, lacquer, and sundry traditional items, were not to be seen. The top Hong Kong professionals and collectors were there, with the renowned dealer William Chak in the front row. But gone were many younger Hong Kong professionals who used to compete for the more modest pieces. Their absence made itself cruelly felt. Indifferent lots of modest or no merit fell unsold by the dozen while the finer works sold much as they used to in the past.

But we’re back to our logical contradictions with Melikian. In one paragraph he notes that quality still attracts great prices and he does his usual excellent job of describing the quality works, their appeal and the interested parties. As the numbers show, there were several lots that were fiercely contested and sold for multiples of the high estimate. Combine that with the lower aggregate number and you get a separation of the market into higher prices for high quality and lower prices for average works.

Later he suggests the market has corrected but claims there are great buys to be had:

Indeed, in the new market now reverting to where it stood before the mad inflation of the last two years, the good news is that speculation is receding fast. Great buys are again possible at every level.

Which doesn’t comport with his earlier disdain for the unsold works and his depiction of scrappy battles for the best items.

In the new Chinese market, gems soar dizzily, but duds crash (International Herald Tribune)