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Christie's Hong Kong: One Bidder, $146 Million In One Year

One bidder spent more than $146 million this year and dropped a boatload of cash at the Christie's Hong Kong art auction on Monday, pushing prices higher and smashing records. Wang Wei, with her husband, investor Liu Yiqian, ranks 176th among the wealthiest in China, with a net worth of $740 million ... and she wouldn't say how much she's spent on art this year.

Wang waved Paddle 960 aggressively on Monday, sometimes tossing bids up HK$1 million at a time to distance herself from competitors for particular pieces. A few times, she didn't bother lowering her paddle, instead just holding it up until her rivals quit.

At Sotheby's Hong Kong in October, Wang's husband shelled out $11 million for a Qing Dynasty imperial throne, complete with carved dragons, setting a record. And, this month, he payd $25 million for a Ming Dynasty scroll by Wu Bin at Beijing's Poly auction -- it was the most paid for a Chinese painting.

At Monday's Christie's sale, HK$126.7 million in art sold, and the house wouldn't reveal how much of it went to Wang. Speaking for herself, the collector reveals why she made the purchases she did. According to Bloomberg News: "I just bought those for fun."

[Photo courtesy of Christie's]

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Tags: art, art collecting, art collection, art collector, art market, ArtCollecting, ArtCollection, ArtCollector, artist, ArtMarket, artwork, Beijing, china, chinese art, Chinese artists, chinese arts, ChineseArt, ChineseArtists, ChineseArts, Christies, Hong Kong, HongKong, qing, qing dynasty, QingDynasty, sothebys

Asian Art Goes under the Gavel in London this Week

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Sotheby's and Christie's are heading east to seek their respective fortunes. The two auction houses are offering more than $26 million of Asian art this week in London. The lots themselves are attracting record numbers of buyers from mainland China, a section of the market that has shown signs of life this year. Chinese buyers were quite active in Hong Kong last month.

Nicholas Chow of Sotheby's told Bloomberg News, ""We've seen a really aggressive push from mainland Chinese collectors during the last season of sales" and that "they're buying things at the very highest level." An Imperial jade seal, for example, moved for GBP3.6 million on Tuesday, six times the high-end presale estimate.

On November 3, Christie's sold an aggregate GBP5.7 million, beating the presale estimate of GBP5.2 million. Of the 319 lots, a third didn't move. The top seller was an eighteenth century enamel model of a Buddhist shrine, which beat its presale range of GBP60,000 to GBP80,000 with a hammer sale of GBP229,250. Nine of the top 10 most expensive items went to buyers from Asia.

Collectors from mainland China are quite eager to repatriate art and other objects from their heritage, particularly the Qing and Ming dynasties ... a fact of which the auction houses are fully aware. Christie's sent 210 invitations to mainland Chinese for its 12th annual Asian Art in London event, which ends November 7, 2009. Sotheby's pursued a similar number of collectors. Bonhams has invited 30 new buyers from mainland China.

In October, the Sotheby's Hong Kong art auction was good for $170 million, with plenty of bidding and buying by mainland Chinese buyers.

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Tags: art, art auction, art auctions, art collector, ArtAuction, ArtAuctions, ArtCollector, asian art, AsianArt, auction, auction-house, auctionhouse, auctions, bonhams, bonhams auction, BonhamsAuction, china, christies, collectibles, collection, collector, collectors, hong kong, HongKong, jade, london, ming, qing, sothebys

Winning Bid On Yves Saint Laurent's Bronzes Was A Protest Not A Promise of Payment

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

Last week's Yves Saint Laurent art sale generated world record revenue but they may have to take one sale off the books. The much-disputed Qing bronzes which were part of the auction's final sale day were bought by Cai Mingchao, who says that although he placed the winning bid for the two bronze statues he does not intend to pay for them. The statues, one with the head of a rat and one with the head of a rabbit sold for €15,745,000 each. The National Treasures Fund, a group backed by the Chinese Ministry of Culture which seeks to buy Chinese art and antiquities from around the world and bring them home announced Cai Mingchao's identity at a news conference. He is an adviser to the National Treasures Fund and has said that he did his duty as a Chinese citizen by bidding for the pieces.

The Qing bronzes had been severed from a water clock by British and French troops from the Summer Palace in 1860 and many Chinese people saw the bronzes as stolen goods up for sale even though the bronze heads have been bought and sold multiple times since then. The Chinese government protested the sale but the French government ruled that the sale could go forward. According to an article on Forbes Pierre Berge had said he would give back the sculptures for free if Tibet is made free, an offer which did not sit well with the Chinese government.

Bloomberg quotes Christie's Hong Kong-based spokeswoman Kate Malin as saying that the auction house "would work with the buyer and vendor to come up with a solution." Christie's could sue Cai Mingchao to get the money but he is adamant that he will not be paying.

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Tags: auction, bronze, china, pierre berge, PierreBerge, qing, qing dynasty, QingDynasty, yves saint laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

New Record for Asian Art

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A new sales record for art sold in Asia was set when a woman at a Christie's Hong Kong auction paid $19.4 million (£10 million) for a small Qing dynasty bowl. Bizarrely, the woman's brother, who is known to have one of the world's best collections of Chinese art, offered the bowl at the auction. This brings up the question as to whether the woman and her brother planned for this to be the outcome of the auction, although why one would set out with the intent to set an auction bidding record remains to be seen. The woman said that she had not expected to buy the bowl; it was a "spur-of-the-moment decision" and that "[her] interest grew during the bidding process"