Chinese Collectors Show Strength for High Quality Works at the Peter Elliott Estate Sale in Australia

Peter Elliott Sale Mossgreens

The rest of the Peter Elliott sale at Mossgreens in Australia was a spectacular blow out with a 98% sell through rate:

All up, across three days and 1015 lots, the Elliott collection brought in $7.03 million with all but 22 lots finding a buyer.

What’s even more interesting for those spooked by the Chinese slowdown is that all of the Chinese works went to buyers in the Mainland or Singapore:

It helped that Mossgreen marketed the sale heavily, including with a viewing in London. Sumner reports buyers from Germany, France and Britain pursued the Oceanic art, particularly the Papua New Guinea artefacts and bulul figures from the Philippines. Results for these figures varied, but leapt as high as $41,480 against an estimate of $3000 to $5000 for one pair.

Sumner says virtually all the Chinese art went to buyers in China and Singapore, something that “has been a pattern for a while”. The sale was particularly enticing to these buyers, he says, because Elliott bought many of the pieces in the 1970s before reproductions became as prevalent. The top lot, a Longquan mallet vase from the 13th or 14th century, made $73,200 on a high estimate of $5000, and a tripod censer from the same period made $53,680 on an estimate of $2000 to $3000. The Asian art section made $1,347,880 against a low estimate of $282,330. All up, Paul Sumner and co had plenty to smile about.

After three days and 1015 lots, Peter Elliott collection a virtual sellout (afr.com)