Sotheby’s Hong Kong sales weren’t the only game in the former protectorate last week. There was also the Fine Art Asia fair which sold $41 million worth of art and antiques. Sales were 40% above the previous year, with 18,000 visitors. All the action was in repatriating Chinese works with little demand for Western art despite Seoul Auction House’s success with Chagall during the same sales period. Of course, the demand for Chinese works of art has dealers wondering where they will replenish their supply:

“If you told me, before this fair, that I’d sell out of everything, I’d say that was a good thing,” said Marcus Flacks of MD Flacks. The New York gallery sold seven of the nine antique chairs and tables it brought to the show. “But now, I’m wondering how I’m ever going to replace any of these items. You have to have supply to meet demand. Demand is huge. But where are we going to find supply?” […]

“This Chinese appetite for Chinese art is totally unprecedented,” said Michael Goedhuis, owner of Michael Goedhuis, a London gallery that specializes in Chinese art. “It’s remorseless, relentless — nothing is stopping them from buying. Nothing.” […]

Nicholas Grindley, another gallerist who sold a Ming table made of the rare huanghuali wood for US$200,000 at the Fine Art fair, put it more succinctly: “I wish I [hadn’t sold] so much to museums 20 years ago.”

The Problem with Chinese Works of Art (Wall Street Journal)