48 17th April 2010
international events
■ Mainland buyers chase libation cups and ivory carvings
■ Indian and South East Asian art produces some solid results
Kate Hunt
reports
£1 = €1.51
THE People’s Republic is home to rising numbers of super-rich who are buying Chinese-taste art like never before. New York’s Asian series in March showed competition between this rich seam of mainland millionaires and an established core of Western collectors and dealers has never been fiercer.
China haemorrhaged art during its various periods of political turbulence. It is now flooding back. Western-based salerooms routinely export half to three quarters of lots or more from their Chinese sales to Asia, a large proportion of this to the mainland. New York’s Asian series was no exception. Given the Chinese government’s
eagerness to repatriate lost Imperial treasures and the country’s strict export laws, just how sustainable in the long term is this one-way traffic in art? “There is still plenty of supply and the market can definitely go on as it is for another few years,” said James Hennessy of London and New York dealership Littleton and Hennessy Asian Art, one of the few Western firms to secure major Chinese works at the sales. “We still haven’t seen the top of it. But we will eventually all be dealing in a rarefied field. Dealers are all buying to try and stockpile and hold onto things. It is not easy.” In auction terms, blue-chip Chinese ceramics are almost exclusively the preserve of the Hong Kong series. New York these days concentrates more on Chinese-taste works of art.
Prices for these works of art, notably
rhinoceros horn, jades and ivories, have long been in the ascendant. In March they hit new highs. With China’s economy predicted to grow at a rate of 9.5 per cent this year, this lucrative auction roller coaster is set to rocket. Packed rooms, a sea of Asian faces, and some phenomenal bids characterised
Proof that rhinos really do
Colour, clarity and a $900,000 bid
DOYLE may not always win the highest profile, blue-chip consignments, such as the Morrill Collection that proved the talk of New York during September’s 2005’s Asian series. But as the beneficiary of many New York estates, their sales often throw up surprises and are a must-visit destination for mainland buyers. Doyle specialist Marley Rabstenek has spotted many ex-Doyle purchases in Beijing’s shop windows. She estimated as much as 90 per cent of the Chinese material in her 338-lot Asian sale on March 22 sold to mainlanders. This included the stand-out entry: this much talked about 61
/4
in
(16cm) apple green and lavender jadeite censer, shown left, from the estate of Sonja Caron Stein pictured here. The flamboyant 19th century vessel, with its $6000-8000 (£4000-5500) estimate, may not be to everyone’s taste. But it proved just the type of flashy statement piece favoured by the Chinese. More importantly, when it comes to jadeite, colour and clarity is everything. The censer had both in spades, being the bright apple green tone coveted by the Chinese. The
reverse had lavender tones. It attracted interest from Hong Kong dealers and a few Western buyers, but was primarily contested by mainland Chinese. It went way past the $150,000 (£99,500) that Ms Rabstenek thought it might achieve and sold for $900,000 (£595,000). By comparison, a fractionally larger but less desirable paler blue-green jadeite tripod censer made $160,000 (£106,000) at Christie’s on March 25.
Highlights at Doyle included a pair of 18th/19th century Chinese celadon jade table
screens from a $477,625 (£316,500) New York collection. Described by Ms Rabstenek as “nice but not spectacular”, the screens nevertheless made $160,000 (£106,000).
Collectors looking for Chinese jade would not have been disappointed by this series. Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Doyle all had fresh-to-market collections, but they would have had to dig into very deep pockets to actually buy anything. Four jades, all bought by private Asian buyers, featured in the top ten at
Sotheby’s the following day. The most expensive of these was this $525,000 (£347,500), 18th century pale celadon jade double-gourd brush-washer, pictured below, with a pedigree T.B. Kitson provenance.
Competition for smaller jade carvings was rife. A diminutive pair of 23
/4
in
(7cm) long 18th/19th century celadon jade crane boxes and covers fetched $120,000 (£79,500) against hopes of $8000-12,000, while an 18th century, pale greenish-white jade mythical animal group acquired in the 1950s and expected to fetch $10,000-15,000 brought $140,000 (£93,000). Christie’s large, 91
/4
in (23cm),
white jade figure of Buddha, right, formerly in the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, pictured here, was the week’s blockbuster jade. “It was gorgeous and glowing with a wonderful smile and we thought it might go over $1m,” said specialist Michael Bass of the $2m (£1.325m) sale topper.
the seven Chinese outings in New York from March 22 to 27.
The spotlight was on the money- spinning Chinese sales as the results table here shows, but the major houses staged a further five auctions of Japanese, Korean, Indian and South East Asian classical, modern and contemporary art. Christie’s and Sotheby’s posted solid
performances of Indian and South East Asian art, with selling rates by lot for the three classical, modern and contemporary auctions, ranging from 73 to 82 per cent. Totals at all three sales were double that of the same series last year. Christie’s specialist Hugo Weihe was encouraged by increased levels of interest from Indian collectors for Gandharan
sculpture at his March 23 sale – a trend he attributed to India’s easing of importation restrictions. Highlights are pictured here. Bonhams’ Japanese outing had a
more selective take-up by lot at 53 per cent, with Christie’s Japanese and Korean outing the stronger of the two, finding buyers for 63 per cent of entries.
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