Auction News Network

Sotheby’s Most Successful Hong Kong Series Ever

When the final hammer came down today, closing out Sotheby’s most successful series of auctions in Hong Kong to date, more than $447m had changed hands, well above the $340m anticipated. Over eight days, Sotheby’s offered more than 3,600 lots across eight categories, as record highs were recorded for wine, watches, and various categories of Asian art.

Chinese Ceramics Fizzle In Hong Kong

It was expected to be the highlight of Sotheby’s weeklong series of auctions in Hong Kong. Instead, today’s sale of the much-lauded Meiyintang Collection of Chinese ceramics was something of a fizzle. Many of the top lots went unsold, and the auction achieved a total of just $51m, considerably below Sotheby’s top estimate of $137m.  What went wrong? “The market,” said Sotheby’s Nicolas Chow, “sets its own prices.”

Chinese Paintings Soar Above Estimates In Hong Kong

Another packed sale in Hong Kong, another astonishing result: Earlier today Sotheby’s sold every work but one in a 308-lot auction of Fine Chinese Paintings, which brought in $83 million, more than four times what had been estimated. Top lot, as anticipated, was “Spring Mountains in Sichuan” by Zhang Daqian. What was not expected was the price of $8.27 million, more than three times the estimate for the work.

New Record For Chinese Contemporary Art

The room was packed, the bidding was “furious,” and the final tally of $54.8m tripled high estimates at Sotheby’s sale of Chinese contemporary art yesterday in Hong Kong. A telephone buyer paid $10.1m for Zhang Xiaogang’s 1988 triptytch “Forever Lasting Love,” establishing a new world auction record for a living Chinese artist. It was only the latest sign of China’s rapidly ascending place in the world art market.

Sotheby’s Begins Spring Hong Kong Sales

Watches, wine, art, jewelry, Chinese ceramics, and porcelain – they’ll all be featured as Sotheby’s begins its series of Asia Week auctions tomorrow in Hong Kong. There will even be a sale devoted to Rhinocerus Horn Carvings. Kicking off the series will be a wine auction, The Classic Cellar from a Great American Collector, featuring 69 lots of Mouton Rothschild, for which Hong Kong buyers have demonstrated a notable thirst. Included are 6 Jeroboams and 6 Imperials, estimated to sell for as much as $18,000 each.

Chinese Scroll Brings $30.8 Million

An anonymous Hong Kong bidder has paid over $30m for a 18^th century Chinese scroll at an auction in Toulouse, France. After a bidding war with seven others, the gavel finally came down at $30.8m, the latest example of the soaring Asian art market. It was the highest price ever achieved for a Chinese work in France.

Christie’s Record Asia Week

Asian collectors hurled their millions at heritage artworks, with Chinese Ceramics drawing the lion’s share. Chinese works alone contributed $76.75 million. When Christie’s Asian Art Week in New York was over, fully $117 million had changed hands. It was Christie’s highest total ever for a series of Chinese art sales and almost $40 million more than the previous record.

$7.9m Chinese Vase At Christie’s

Asia buyers once again turned out in force at Christie’s auction of Chinese art in New York yesterday. Seven of the top ten lots from the Morton and Grace Gordon collection went to private collectors from Asia. A Qianlong celadon-glazed carved baluster vase (1736-1795) sold for $7.9m, doubling its $2-$4m estimate. “Today,”said dealer Qing Shuai Wang, “the Chinese are desperate for Qianlong period porcelain.”

80 Times Estimate For Chinese Plaque

A Taiwanese collector paid an astounding $94,800 for a Chinese celadon jade oval plaque, over 80 times the $1,500 high estimate it had carried at Clars Auction Gallery’s March sale in Oakland. It was only the latest example of the escalating prices Asian buyers are paying for items reflecting their heritage. Clars’ President, Redge Martin, called the sale “astonishing.”

Asia Week At Bonhams

As a phrase, “up to snuff” probably originated in the 19^th century. The practice of using snuff, however, began a good deal earlier, as evidenced by the collection of rare vintage Chinese snuff bottles that kicks off Bonhams’ Asia Week. Top seller is likely to be an unusual enameled white glass bottle made in the Imperial Palace workshops in the Qianlong period (1750-1780), estimated at $60,000-$80,000.

Update: The white snuff bottles sold for a heady $254,000, over three times its high estimate. And a rare yellow jade bottle brought in $134,000, also well above its $40,000-$60,000 estimate.

China Now World’s #2 Art Market

It’s official: China has edged out Great Britain to become the second largest art market in the world. According to the British Art Market Foundation, China’s auction and gallery sales totaled $8.3 billion last year, a 23% share of the total market, second only to the U.S share of 34%.

A $4 Million Chinese Vase?

Next week in New York both Sotheby’s and Christie’s will be having a series of Chinese-themed auctions, testing the avid interest collectors have displayed in recent months for rare and vintage ceramics and art. At Christie’s March 24^th offering of Qing Monochrome Porcelains, an 18^th century Celadon-Glazed Carved Baluster Vase with Qianlong seal carries a high estimate $4 million, and a rare Blue-Glazed Flask-Form Qianlong Vase may sell for even more.

$23 Million Chinese Vase

A Chinese imperial 18^th century vase is expected to sell for $23 Million at a Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction on April 7th. It’s one of some 80 pieces from the renowned Meiyintang collection of Chinese ceramics that Sotheby’s estimates will bring in $121 million.

Christie’s Sizzles In Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, 2010 was the best of times for Christie’s. The auction house more than doubled its totals from 2009, and set 35 new world auction records across a variety of categories, including jewelry, wine, watches, ceramics, and art. Chinese buyers dominated the market, establishing themselves as a force, Christie’s as a major player, and Hong Kong as a central hub of the Asian auction marketplace.

Outstanding Sales in 2010

Deep-pocketed new Asian buyers flooded the auction market, and investors sought hedges against uncertain financial instruments; bidders from Russia and other oil-rich nations made an imprint, and worldwide deep-pocketed collectors found opportunity. Together, they accounted for a lively recovery in the auction markets. Check out some highlights from our coverage during a remarkable auction year.