Art, Diamonds, Watches, Collectibles etc.

[winston]

Diamond prices soar on Asian demand By Stanley Pignal and Emiko Terazono

Diamonds have emerged as a haven investment alongside favourites gold and the Swiss franc, with surging demand from Asian buyers driving prices of the precious stones.

Consumption from China and India has helped boost prices nearly 50 per cent since the start of 2010 -- mostly in the past six months -- and pushed them to historic highs, according to industry price lists and gem traders in Antwerp, the global capital of the diamond business.

The value of top-quality polished diamonds of 5 carats, or 1 gramme, has risen to about $150,000 a carat, up from about $100,000-$120,000 a year ago, according to PolishedPrices, which compiles data on the wholesale market. Other categories of polished and rough diamonds have also risen.

Rough-diamond prices were hit hard during the credit crisis, but saw support in 2009 after the leading producers, including De Beers of South Africa, held back supplies to push prices up.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/08 ... index.html

[winston]

Most expensive diamonds sold at auction by Megha Chaturvedi

Diamonds are for everyone. Besides making for beautiful jewellry, diamond sales are rising with investors buying them as collectibles.

Diamonds of assorted traits with their exclusive beauty are admired by many and they also reflect a person’s wealth and give its owner a sense of pride and luxury.

Although diamonds are women’s first love, you will be surprised to know that these expensive diamonds are mostly collected by men.

The best quality diamonds come from all over the world and are sold at different auction houses at hefty prices. Hence, we have compiled a list of world’s most expensive diamonds sold at auctions.

http://www.bornrich.com/entry/expensive ... d-auction/

[winston]

Diamond sector update

After rising by almost 40% from the start of the year, diamond prices have started to soften from August, as a result of global economic uncertainty and liquidity issues which affected trade.

Nevertheless, compared to other precious metals such as gold and silver, diamond prices have generally outperformed year-to-date.

Uncertainties in the global economy may have a negative impact on the sector in the short term but structural supply issues and growing demand from China and India support the positive longer-term view.

Source: Kim Eng

[winston]

Tread carefully in Chinese art market, experts say By Kevin Lim

SINGAPORE, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Investors should not indiscriminately buy pieces by popular contemporary Chinese artists since commercial success has made some complacent and later paintings and sculpture may lack the originality of earlier work, art advisers warn.

Asia's wealthy have showed increased interest in art in recent years, pushing up prices and sparking concerns of a bubble -- particularly in the market for contemporary Chinese art as the country rises as an economic and political power.

In Hong Kong, auction market turnover skyrocketed 300 percent from 2009 to 2010. Citigroup estimates that Chinese buyers accounted for 23 percent of the $61 billion in global art sales last year.

Some collectors like to think values will continue to rise due to limited supply and continued strong demand as Asian collectors become more affluent, but not all pieces will necessarily do well, experts said.

"You can be buying the right name and the wrong pieces, and your collection is not going to increase in value," said Suzanne Gyorgy, a director at Citi Private Bank Art Advisory and Finance, who advises wealthy clients about their collections.

For example, a 1994 portrait by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang from his Bloodline series -- stylized portraits of imaginary Chinese families with piercing eyes -- sold for $8.4 million last year at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, but a 2005 piece by the same artist fetched just $1.2 million at a Christie's event.

"The work they (the artists) are doing now is really just kind of miming the original work," Gyorgy added.

Part of the reason is artist wariness about trying new things for fear their income may take a hit.

"Some established artists are reluctant to go into experimental mode because they can easily sell what they produce," said Gil Schneider, managing director at consultancy firm ArtComplete.

Lorenzo Rudolf, the organiser of the annual Art Stage exhibition in Singapore, said that while the loss of originality is a genuine concern, collectors should not worry about works done with the help of many assistants.

What is important is that the artist remains creative, he said, noting that Andy Warhol employed a large number of artists to produce the pop art that bears his name.

OLD MASTERS, IMPRESSIONISTS Schneider, previously with Sotheby's, said the Chinese contemporary art market has been overheated for the past five or six years and collectors might want to look at works by artists from countries such as the Philippines and Thailand instead.

Others agreed that investors might well want to look elsewhere for the best value.

Citi's Gyorgy said Impressionist and Old Master paintings are now more attractively priced compared with contemporary art.

"Those markets have been somewhat less popular so as a result, you can get wonderful, wonderful works of art for relatively, not that much money," she said.

"Look at highs of the contemporary market where the American painter Clyfford Still just had a painting that sold for $61 million... A recently discovered Velazquez painting came to market and sold for $4 to $4.5 million." But many serious art collectors will stick to contemporary art, despite the investment risk, because they find works by artists who are still alive more relevant to their times.

"Art which has a certain age is established. It has gone through several stages of selection... Everybody wants to find fresh, new faces," Art Stage's Rudolf said.

Source: Reuters

[winston]

Tintin comic book cover fetches record price at auction

A rare 1932 cover illustration of "Tintin in America" by Herge, the artist who dreamed up the boy reporter, on Saturday fetched a record 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million) at an auction.

"The work has been sold at 1,338,509.20 euros, costs included, by a person who wishes to remain anonymous," a spokesman for the auctioneers, Artcurial, told AFP.

The previous owner, another Tintin collector, had bought it for 764,218 euros in 2008, which had until today stood as the record price in this domain.

http://www.newsmeat.com/news/meat.php?a ... &buid=3281

[winston]

Late mainland artist's work sets record

A renowned modern Chinese landscape painting by Li Keran sold for nearly 300 million yuan (HK$365 million) in Beijing, setting a personal auction record for the late mainland artist.


Source: SCMP

[winston]

So what would happen to prices ?

Russia Is Sitting on “Trillions of Carats” of Diamonds by WashingtonsBlog

Enough to Supply the Global Diamond Market for 3,000 Years

Russia has just declassified a secret it has been keeping for 40 years: it is sitting on trillions of carats of diamonds, enough to supply the global diamond market for 3,000 years.

The diamonds are “twice as hard” as normal, making them ideal for industrial applications, such as diamond saws.

We’ve previously discussed an even bigger stash of diamonds which may eventually flood the markets: one which is 10 billion trillion trillion carats.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/ ... monds.html

[winston]

Sparkling mainland is De Beers' best friend by Kelly Ip

Diamonds are a girl's best friend and, according to the world's leading diamond company, many of those girls are now in China.

Philippe Mellier, chief executive of De Beers, said the demand for both rough and cut diamonds in the mainland has increased at a rate of 5-10 percent annually over the past few years.

China is now De Beers' second-biggest diamond market and accounts for 25 percent of its business.

De Beers, which produces more than 40 percent of the world's diamonds, said the United States remains the largest market in the world.

But demand in China is now higher than either there or in Europe.

Varda Shine, chief executive of the Diamond Trading Co, De Beers' rough diamond distribution arm, believes the beginning of next year will be a good time for the diamond market in both India and China.

"In Indian weddings they use a lot of small stones while the Chinese are starting to see diamonds as luxury items."

The company expects to recruit more sightholders, besides the current two in Hong Kong - Chow Sang Sang Jewellery Co and Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Co.

Sightholders are companies authorized to purchase rough diamonds in bulk.

Mellier believes the price of diamonds will grow steadily despite central banks announcing asset purchases, such as the third phase of quantitative easing to boost the US economy.

Since the announcement of QE3, gold prices have risen to a 29-week high as demand for the metal grows.

However, Mellier said diamonds are not a commodity in which to invest.

"We insist diamonds are luxury items and cannot be compared to gold as commodities."

There are two De Beers stores in Hong Kong and four in China, and the company is looking for more partners. "We have exciting ideas like different colored diamonds set in unique jewelry designs," Shine said.

As the largest supplier of rough diamonds in the world, Mellier said it is the leader of the industry, not the controller.

"We behave as a leader and see what we can do to make the industry healthier."


http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 20921&fc=8

[winston]

Hong Kong Show Reflects Low-Level Far East Demand

Diamond trading at the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair reflected a steady but lower level ‎of Far East demand, mirroring trends in the global market this year.

http://www.diamonds.net/News/NewsItem.a ... ast+Demand

[winston]

Rare British Guiana stamp sells for record US$9.5mil

British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, described as the most famous stamp in the world, on display in a glass case at Sotheby's in New York. No stamp is rarer than the sole-surviving example of the British Guiana One-Cent Magenta, a unique penny issue from 1856.. - AFP

NEW YORK: A British Guiana One-Cent Magenta postage stamp from 1856, the only one of its kind to still exist, sold for a record US$9.5 million at Sotheby's on Tuesday.

The hefty price, which includes the buyer's premium, makes the one-inch by one-and-a-quarter-inch stamp (2.5 cm by 3.2 cm) printed in black on magenta paper the most expensive stamp ever sold at auction, and the most valuable object by weight and size, according to the auction house.

An anonymous telephone bidder purchased the stamp during the bidding in the packed auction.

"Every time it has come up for auction and sold, it has brought the highest price ever paid for a stamp," said David Redden, the worldwide chairman of books and manuscripts at Sotheby's.

"It has always been the world's most-famous stamp. It is one of these objects around which a huge mystique has grown up over the years," he said.

The previous record auction price for a single stamp was 2.87 million Swiss francs (about $2.2 million). It was set in 1996 for the Treskilling Yellow, a Swedish stamp that is a misprint of an 1855 shilling stamp in the wrong color.

The British Guiana stamp was sold by the estate of the late multimillionaire John du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune, who died in prison in 2010 at the age of 72. Du Pont was serving a murder sentence for the shooting of David Schultz, a champion U.S. wrestler, in 1996.

Earlier this year, the Royal Philatelic Society of London re-authenticated the stamp, which du Pont, an avid stamp collector, purchased in 1980 for $935,000. The stamp's authenticity was previously verified in 1935.

The British Guiana One-Cent Magenta is one of the world's first postage stamps. In 1856 in British Guiana - now the republic of Guyana - the local postmaster asked a newspaper to print some stamps after supplies from Britain, where its stamps were printed, were delayed.

There are still a few four-cent stamps issued by the South American country, but this is the only one-cent. Until this year, the stamp had not been on public view since 1987, according to Sotheby's.

The stamp was discovered in 1873 by a 12-year-old schoolboy named L. Vernon Vaughan, who was living in British Guiana with his family. He found it among his family papers.

He kept it in his collection and later sold it to another collector in British Guiana. It surfaced in Britain in 1878 and was then purchased by Count Philippe la Renotiere von Ferrary, a noted stamp collector.

The count's collection was donated to the postal museum in Berlin and was later seized by France as war reparation from Germany and sold in 1922.

It was sold several times before du Pont purchased it. Part of the proceeds of the sale will go to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation, which du Pont supported.

Source: Reuters