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Sotheby’s NY Asia Week = $74m; HK Estimates Raised to Nearly Half a Billion USD

September 20, 2013 by Marion Maneker

Su Shi, The Gong Fu Tie Calligraphy $8.2m

This was the piece of calligraphy that made $8.2m at Sotheby’s in New York this week was originally thought to be in the $1m range. That’s one of the reasons the sales blew out the top estimate of $40m to reach $74,077,814. The very strong results for Chinese works of art bodes well for Sotheby’s upcoming Hong Kong sales.

And Sotheby’s is getting excited about those sales which begin October 5th by issuing estimates for the entire cycle of 3,571 lots which might total between US$369,227,000 – 492,937,000. Sotheby’s reports that their Hong Kong auctions are already stocked at a rate 77% higher than last year.

NTDTV Previews Sotheby’s Oct HK Sale

September 7, 2011 by Marion Maneker

There’s a lot more to Sotheby’s Hong Kong sales in October than this one Fine Chinese Art auction but its not a bad place to start:

  • Fu Baoshi, titled ‘Pavilion in the Solitude of the Mountains,’ that is expected to fetch about $2 million U.S. dollars.
  • Xu Beihong, titled ‘Leaning Against the Bamboo’, estimated to go for up to $1.2 million U.S. dollars.
  • Over 360 works will go under the hammer on October 4th in Hong Kong, and are expected to raise about $26 million US dollars.
Sotheby’s Previews Fine Chinese Art Collection (NTDTV)

Qi Baishi Sells for $65m in Beijing Auction

May 23, 2011 by Marion Maneker

Agence France Presse reports the record $65m sale of a Qi Baishi painting over the weekend at China Guardian in Beijing:

The 1946 painting of an eagle perched on the branch of a pine tree, surrounded by two calligraphy scrolls, measures 100 by 266 centimetres (three by 8.5 feet), the China Guardian auction house said.

Sunday’s sale marked the second-highest amount ever paid for an artwork at auction in China, after the 436.8 million yuan paid in 2009 for a work by Song dynasty calligrapher Huang Tingjian, who lived during the 11th century.

Qi, who died in 1957, was one of the most prolific Chinese artists of the 20th century, and his works have recently become sought after.

China Painting Nets Record $65m at Auction (AFP)

The New Line on Late Picasso: China Loves Him!

November 12, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Here’s an interesting convergence of auction house marketing and eager media. Although late Picasso works have been rising in value on the art market for the better part of a decade, we’re now told their success is due to the attentions of Chinese collectors.

This just so happens to coincide with Sotheby’s big push to sell Modern Masters in China later this month and Christie’s upcoming sale, not to mention Ben Brown’s show of late Picassos in Hong Kong. Clearly there’s demand in Asia for this work. But the rising prices for these works peaked long before the Chinese arrived on the auction scene. That doesn’t stop BusinessWeek’s Rachel Wolff from condescending to Asian buyers:

In the past two years, though, these large, bright, and loud works have become sensations. In a perfect marriage of questionable taste and label snobbery, newly wealthy Chinese collectors are flocking to late Picassos and helping drive prices to unprecedented levels. What’s the allure? Well, they’re large, bright, and loud—and, of course, they were painted by Picasso. “There is something about these works that definitely appeals to the Chinese,” says Ken Yeh, Christie’s Asia chairman. “Many of the late Picassos are very colorful and big in scale. In Asia, they generally prefer larger paintings. Size does matter.”Continue Reading

Sotheby's Chinese WoA Makes $15,107,375

September 15, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Extraordinary numbers as Sotheby’s sells 61% of the 233 lots on offer or 141 lots. The top five lots all sold at huge premiums from their estimates. But the assumption that all strong sales go to Asian buyers, 40% of the top ten went to Western buyers, three of those were American private buyers.

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