Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Indonesia's Market Maker

September 22, 2008 by Marion Maneker

Bloomberg Profiles Indonesia’s Prime Collector

All art markets have a prime collector who gives the field an initial shape and benchmark. Bloomberg profiles tobacco heir, Oei Hong Djien, who has three museums and 1500 works. Adam Medjendie writes:

Oei’s friendship with expressionist painter Affandi in the 1980s developed into the most comprehensive private collection of modern and contemporary Indonesian work. The two museums in the grounds of his house, one for 20th-century works and the other for contemporary ones, contain paintings by Affandi, Hendra Gunawan, Sudjojono, Yunizar, Nyomen Masriadi and more than 100 others, as well as sculptures and installations. [ . . . ]

The market shifted after overseas collectors began to buy works of artists such as Putu Sutawijaya and Masriadi at Christies International and Sotheby’s auctions in Hong Kong and Singapore. Prices jumped 10-fold. Sutawijaya’s “Looking for Wings” sold in Singapore for S$114,000 ($80,000) with fees against a presale top estimate of S$9,000.

“Then the eyes of the Indonesian collectors opened,” Oei said. “They started also to buy.” Oei said the cause of the sudden change was China, where prices had risen rapidly since 2000. Some collectors were looking for a cheaper alternative.

The China effect boosted markets across Asia, including India and Indonesia, traditionally the biggest art producers in south and southeast Asia. Prices were also rising as economic growth in the region created new collectors.

Indonesian Collector Oei Turns Tobacco Into Art, Sees Slowdown (Bloomberg)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Art Auction Guarantee: Bringing Guarantees to the Primary Market.Art Auction Guarantee: Bringing Guarantees to the Primary Market.
  • Indonesian Auction Gets HotIndonesian Auction Gets Hot
  • Sotheby's HK SouthEast Asian = HK$107,729,250Sotheby's HK SouthEast Asian = HK$107,729,250
  • Indonesian Collector: Gov't Should Support ArtIndonesian Collector: Gov't Should Support Art
  • Larasati Singapore Sale = US$1.4mLarasati Singapore Sale = US$1.4m
  • Corporate Social Responsibility Drives Indonesian ArtCorporate Social Responsibility Drives Indonesian Art

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Collectors/Collecting, Indonesian

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • British Modernists Draw Deep Bidding in Christie's $42 M. London Sales
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Phillips to Showcase Helen Frankenthaler at Southampton Outpost
  • Collection of Texas Heiress Anne Marion Expected to Fetch $150 M. at Sotheby’s
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor