What’s Going On in New York’s Asia Week?

This commentary by Marion Maneker is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.) Asia Week in New York has seen an unusual number of works bid well above the estimates. This has happened before. But it comes at a time when there’s a general buzz about that the Chinese art market is weak reflecting a healing Chinese economy. Chinese art advisors say that buyers for Western art who have come to play a central role in the Impressionist and Modern market are different from the buyers pursuing Chinese works of art. But that those buyers now view the auctions in Hong Kong as having their estimates pushed to the limit. Sales in the West are perceived to have less aggressive estimates leaving buyers more room to bid on works they believe are undervalued. The result seems to be strong bidding in New York. Here are a few examples from Christie’s: