Art, Diamonds, Watches, Collectibles etc.

[winston]

Jeff Koons Sculpture May Fetch 12 Million Pounds at Christie's
By Scott Reyburn

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- A Jeff Koons sculpture will be the most valuable work by the artist offered at auction in Europe when it goes on sale at Christie's International in London next month, the auction house said today in an e-mailed statement.

The chromium steel ``Balloon Flower (Magenta)'' is expected to fetch about 12 million pounds ($23.8 million) when it is offered on June 30, Christie's said.

The work was made in 1995-1999 as part of the artist's ``Celebration'' series of high-tech sculptures inspired by childhood memories. Four other versions of ``Balloon Flower'' exist in four different colors, said the auction house. The seller is Dallas-based collector Howard Rachofsky, who has been guaranteed a minimum price, said Christie's.

``It was an agonizing decision to sell this iconic work,'' Rachofsky said in a telephone interview. ``But I just felt this was the right piece to sell at the moment in order to expand the collection in other areas.''

He said that he had bought the sculpture, which is 11 feet (3.4 meters) high, for an undisclosed price from a group headed by the London-based dealer Anthony d'Offay.

Rachofsky, a former hedge fund manager, said that his main areas of collecting interest were now American Minimalism, Italian Arte Povera and German painting from the 1980s and 1990s.

In 2005, Howard and Cindy Rachofsky donated their collection by bequest to the Dallas Museum of Art. He consulted Koons on the latest sale.

`New Nexus'

``Jeff was enthusiastic about the idea of selling in London,'' Rachofsky said. ``It is the new nexus of the art world.''

In November 2007, another sculpture from the ``Celebration'' series, ``Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold),'' sold at Sotheby's in New York for $23.6 million with fees, making Koons the world's most expensive living artist at auction.

He remained so until May 14 when Lucian Freud's ``Benefits Supervisor Sleeping'' sold for $33.6 million at Christie's in New York. According to the Art Newspaper, the Freud was bought by the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who has a house in London.

In April, http://www.artinfo.com reported that $80 million had been paid for a Koons stainless steel ``Rabbit'' sculpture, dating from 1986, in a $500 million private auction of the collection of the late Ileana and Michael Sonnabend.

``That price makes the `Balloon Flower' look a steal,'' said Pilar Ordovas, Christie's head of contemporary art in London. ``Only a few years ago, we wouldn't have thought of selling a major Koons work in London, but now the global nature of the market has made the city a vibrant place to sell.''

``Balloon Flower (Magenta)'' will be put on public display in St. James's Square from June 21-30. Christie's June 30 auction of contemporary art also includes works by Francis Bacon and Freud, valued at 10 million pounds each.

[winston]

About 15 years ago, a very smart guy told me to buy Chinese Arts, Chinese Antique Furnitures etc. His reasoning was that when the Chinese becomes rich, they would be willing to pay for those stuff. Unfortunately, my capital was limited at that time

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Zeng's `Mask' Fetches Record HK$75.4 Million in Hong Kong
By Le-Min Lim

May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese painter Zeng Fanzhi's picture of eight figures wearing grinning masks and the telltale scarf of China's Red Guards fetched HK$75.4 million ($9.7 million) in Hong Kong, an auction record for Asian contemporary art.

Zeng's ``Mask Series 1996 No. 6'' smashed the previous record of $9.5 million set in November with Cai Guoqiang's set of 14 gunpowder-on-paper works. ``Mask'' was the top lot at Christie's International's first Asian evening sale, which offered 34 contemporary-art paintings by Chinese, Indian, Korean and Japanese artists. Two lots failed to sell, and sales totaled HK$317.4 million, Christie's said. Christie's declined to say who bought the Zeng painting or which region the buyer is from.

Yue Minjun's sardonic painting of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, featuring smiling bombs dropping on the Beijing landmark, sold for an artist record of HK$54.1 million. The picture last featured at Christie's November 2005 auction when it sold for HK$4.9 million.

[winston]

Qing-Dynasty Pot Sells for HK$65 Million in Hong Kong
By Le-Min Lim

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwanese computer-chip tycoon Robert Tsao sold an imperial Qing Dynasty glass pot for HK$65 million ($8.3 million) at an auction in Hong Kong today, raising funds for victims of China's deadly May 12 earthquake.

The palm-sized antique, used to hold paint brushes for Chinese calligraphy, went for the reserve price, according to Tsao. Christie's International had estimated before the sale that the item, decorated with European-style mother-and-child images, might fetch HK$85 million. Tsao bought it in November for HK$67.5 million, a record for a Chinese glasswork. An Asian collector bought the item over the phone, said Christie's.

The pot is part of Christie's sale of Chinese ceramics, imperial clocks and other collectibles. Nearly 500 people --about 100 standing -- packed the salesroom at Hong Kong Convention Center, among them about 30 were active bidders. Rapid-fire offers came for the Nezu Museum Qing Dynasty clocks, pushing some lots to more than 10 times their presale estimate. Activity cooled when ceramics and other items came on the block.

``People are increasingly going for the best; mediocre just won't do,'' said Qu Liqun, a Shanghai-based dealer who flew in to attend the auction. ``It's very obvious people were focused on the museum-quality pieces and items with detailed history of their previous owners and literary citations.''

Today's sale totaled HK$828.9 million; of the 368 lots offered, 222 were sold, according to Christie's.

``Truly Rare''

``The clocks did very well because they are truly rare, otherwise there just wasn't enough enthusiasm,'' said Hong Kong collector Robert Chang, in an interview. ``Some important Chinese buyers probably stayed away because of the Sichuan earthquake.''

A flurry of paddles and raised hands from Christie's staff on the phone with clients came for Lot 1509, a three-tiered imperial musical clock topped with a floral bouquet, which sold for more than 10 times its presale estimate of HK$3.5 million. With a plummy, leveled British accent, auctioneer Hugh Edmeades coaxed additional HK$1 million bids from the audience.

A black-clad man in the front row, sipping on bottled wheat tea and whispering incessantly with a Taiwanese accent into a Motorola fold-out phone, competed fiercely for about half the lots, winning nearly all. He declined to be interviewed. The auction of 15 clocks raised HK$281 million.

``People were really coming out of the woodworks for this collection -- a singular opportunity to get museum pieces,'' said Kate Malin, a Christie's Hong Kong spokeswoman.

Bidding on the Tsao piece started at HK$40 million and was over in less than two minutes. Tsao, dressed in a blue linen blazer, white shirt and black laced loafers, looked on in the audience.

Waived Commission

Asked before the sale if he thought the pot would sell, he said, ``I know it will; it's a question of how much.''

Tsao pledged half the proceeds of the sale to help relief efforts for the quake, which killed at least 65,000 people, with the rest of the money going to other charities, Christie's said. The auction house said it waived its commission for the pot.

Tsao, 61, was chairman of United Microelectronics Corp. until January 2006 when he quit after being charged by Taiwanese prosecutors under President Chen Shui-bian's administration. He was acquitted in October of breach of trust for providing technology and other assistance to a Chinese chipmaker without proper documentation. He's now chairman emeritus of UMC, the world's second-biggest wafer foundry.

Emperor Qianlong

Interest waned after Tsao's item was sold. Auctioneer Andrea Fiuczynski, animated and striking in a lustrous orange outfit, tried with limited success to get a passive audience to bid more. By mid-day, at least a fifth of the items, including ceramics, lacquers, and imperial portraits were withdrawn. Still, lots of good provenance did well, including a blue-and-white hexagonal vase (Lot 1582) bearing Emperor Qianlong's mark that sold for HK$29 million, not including commission.

Today's sale is the fourth day of Christie's six-day spring auction of 2,400 gems, paintings and collectibles that the company estimates will fetch HK$1.7 billion. The auction house will offer gems, including a 101-carat diamond tomorrow.

Christie's charges a buyer's premium of 25 percent for the first HK$150,000, 20 percent of the amount from HK$150,000 up to HK$4 million, and 12 percent of the sum above that.

[ishak]

Artful practitioners of a confidence trick
FT.com, September 2 2008

Spend enough time in the world of commerce and an ineluctable truth emerges: everyone talks their own book. Stockbrokers push shares, estate agents are bullish about property, entrepreneurs puff their companies and art dealers hype art.

But just as the other asset classes have caved in during the past year, so the value of art must crash. And no part of the art market is more vulnerable than contemporary art, which has risen so very high on little more than PR and salesmanship.

I salute those who have created the merry-go-round: the gallery owners, the critics, the auctioneers, the publicists and even the artists. It has been a wonderful scheme to make lots of money out of almost nothing. But like all asset bubbles it must burst, and I suspect the end is coming awfully soon.

There is a joke theory that art is a remarkable haven, insulated from the hundreds of billions of losses in real estate and on stock markets. Somehow, this “alternative” asset is meant to escape the bloodbath drowning everything from second-hand cars to private equity and remain unscathed. But my suspicion is that it will fall further and harder than perhaps any other asset class, save perhaps subprime mortgages.

The reasons are several. First, modern art has mainly been bought by the nouveaux riches who made their money in the bull market: the hedge fund managers, the investment bankers, the media moguls. Most of these would-be collectors are running for cover, having been battered by the credit crunch, with bonuses and bumper payouts now just a memory. The few rich left – the Russians, oil sheikhs and the like – don’t buy much contemporary art. The years of easy money, which have driven so much asset price inflation, are surely over and now is the reckoning, when the froth evaporates.

Second, contemporary art has no intrinsic value in the way a building or land or a stake in an enterprise has. You cannot generate an income from it; you cannot borrow against it; you cannot trade it on an exchange. In fact it costs money to keep because you have to insure it. It is mostly a folly, dreamt up by wily promoters to spoof those who have limited taste and too much cash.

By definition such works have not stood the test of time and proved their artistic merit across the generations. And even fine art, which has genuine aesthetic worth, goes through fairly violent investment cycles, and periods when demand dries up and there are forced sellers.

Some cling to the notion that luxury goods are immune from the downturn. These deniers should study the latest results of Tiffany and Louis Vuitton and the sales of yachts and corporate jets. All are slumping. The US recession is spreading to Europe and Asia and the rich are cutting back just the same as everybody else. Christie’s, Sotheby’s and the like will feel it soon enough.

I predict that, in years to come, many of the “installations” and similar rip-offs parading today as art will end up in skips, worthless emblems of a period with too much liquidity and not much cultural judgment.

What is ironic is that plenty of this stuff was bought by cynical collectors who didn’t even enjoy it: they bought it because they believed it was a good investment. What a fatuous idea. The only reason you should buy art is because you like it.

For six years I was a governor of the University of the Arts London, which includes such eminent institutions as Chelsea College of Art, Central St Martins and Camberwell. I remember attending the various degree shows and seeing shadowy figures flitting around, hoping to scoop bargains from the young talent who were displaying their wares. These characters would then sell on the work of their new protégé to whichever philistine financier happened to be passing their gallery.

Pablo Picasso, perhaps the most financially astute artist of all time, understood the game very well. He said: “I’m a joker who has understood his epoch and has extracted all he possibly could from the stupidity, greed and vanity of his contemporaries.”

A rather fitting epitaph to a passing era of decadence and foolishness.

[kennynah]

nou·veau riche (nū'vō rēsh') - french word...to mean new rich and especially one who flaunts their new found wealth...

[winston]

What slowdown ?

Flowery Murakami sculpture to adorn Asia art auction

By Miral Fahmy SINGAPORE, Sept 12 (Reuters Life!) - A huge, whimsical floral sculpture by Japan's Takashi Murakami is set to steal the show at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction of modern Asian art in a region apparently unfazed by the global economic slowdown.

The Oct. 4 sale is Sotheby's first of a series of five in Hong Kong, the world's third largest art auction market after New York and London, where more than 570 works from all over Asia, valued at a minimum of $69 million, will go under the hammer.

"The Asian contemporary art market is still going strong," Chin Yeow Quek, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia, told Reuters during a preview of the sales in Singapore.

"The business is so global now that people from all over the world are looking for a place to park their money during this global slowdown and the art market has so far proven resilient." Quek said China's newly rich art acquirers were still major buyers of regional, and especially Chinese art, while Indonesian and Indian paintings were also proving very attractive.

Murakami's 4 metre by 3 metre (13 feet by 10 feet) "Flower Matango", tagged at $3 million, is the first work by this significant contemporary artist to be auctioned in Asia, said Evelyn Lin, head of Sotheby's contemporary Asian art department.

"Murakami has a very strong market in Europe and the United States, but this is his first work in Asia, which is a testament to the strength of the market here," she added.

Other highlights of the sale include a signature "Bloodline: The Big Family" work by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang as well as works by record-breaking cynical Realist artist Yue Minjun and the comic-book style, sarcastic paintings of Indonesia's Nyoman Masriadi, including one that features a Batman and a Superman.

The Oct. 5 20th Century Chinese Art sale will feature works by Taiwanese artist Chen Chengbo and Wang Zhenghua's "Nanchang Uprising", considered an art classic of Communist China.

Works by mainly Indonesian artists including Masriadi and the renowned Affandi will feature in the Oct. 6 Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian sale. And the highlight of the Fine Chinese paintings sale of the same day is the delicate ink brush scroll, "Along the Yangtze River", by Wu Guanzhong, who requested the proceeds be donated to a scholarship that bears his name at Beijing's Tsinghua University.

The auction series will also include Sotheby's first night-time sale, a nod to the black-tie, formal evening sales of New York and Europe, but with a more casual, Asian twist.

"Night-time sales tend to be more social events and our October 4 sale will be our first in Asia, but because we tend to be more casual here, we're not expecting tuxedos," Quek said.

Rival auction house Christie's held a glitzy evening sale this spring in Hong Kong which saw a work by Zeng Fanzhi sell for $9.7 million, a then-auction record for any Asian contemporary artwork.

[winston]

Chinese art market cools in wake of financial turmoil

HONG KONG, Oct 3 (Reuters) - The bullish Chinese art market will likely come under increasing strain in the coming months amid the bleak global economic outlook, say dealers and market participants ahead of major seasonal sales in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's twice-yearly Asian arts sales in the spring and autumn are a major fixture in the global arts calendar, attracting the world's top dealers and collectors to the city, which is now considered the world's third-largest art auction hub after London and New York.

Valuations for top-flight Asian artwork, particularly Chinese contemporary paintings have sky-rocketed in recent years, with record-breaking prices for works by blue-chip artists like Zhang Xiaogang and Zeng Fanzhi boosted by speculative frenzy.

A Zeng painting of masked figures fetched $9.7 million this spring, a then-auction record for any Asian contemporary artwork.

Global auction house Sotheby's (BID.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will kick off its autumn sales this weekend from October 4-8, with a trove of Asian art up for grabs including Chinese ceramics and paintings, rare Qing treasures, Southeast Asian artwork, jewellery and watches.

But some market players say demand is waning amid the global turmoil, with prices set to cool after the sustained bull run.

"I have a lot of clients from overseas, from the States and Europe and they won't want to attend the auction because the Dow went down so much," said Kevin Lin, a fine art dealer in Taiwan.

"There will be a lot of unsold pieces let's say HK$800,000 to $HK3-4 million," Lin said of Chinese ceramics. "Prices are not going to go crazy like before, but stay at the lower estimates."

QUALITY COUNTS

With the dimming global economic outlook and the flow of credit freezing up in money markets, Sotheby's CEO for Asia Kevin Ching said its earlier total sales estimate of HK$2 billion ($257.5 million) for the Hong Kong sales could be impacted.

"Bearing in mind what has happened since, we've approached some consignors to see if ... you'd like to lower your reserve (price) or whatever but it's very interesting that the majority of the people that we contacted seemed comfortable or optimistic enough to stick to the original reserves."

Sotheby's shares have dropped 22 percent in the past three months, and 61 percent over the past 12 months.

Ching said strong demand from wealthy mainland Chinese buyers would help prop up sentiment, particularly for top lots like a set of rare Qianlong imperial jade seals and scrolls.

"Our own experience and history has always shown that our market has somehow always succeeded in surviving world financial downturns for at least 2-and-a-half-years, in 1987 and 1998."

The auctioneer's stellar sale of works by British artist Damien Hirst last month, defied the economic blues in raking in $198 million, with strong buying by Russians and Europeans.

The organiser of another major art event -- the Hong Kong International Art and Antiques Fair expected to sell a total of HK$140 million ($18.02 million), at least equal to last year's haul, partly from art's role as an asset diversifier but prices were expected to ease off and tastes become more discerning.

"Everybody is more cautious. So the items of good quality will turn out to be more and more important," Andy Hei, the founder and director of the fair told Reuters.

[winston]

Sotheby's lost US$15m on art auction guarantees

Disappointing art auctions in London and Hong Kong this month cost Sotheby's US$15 million (HK$117 million) in losses on guarantees it provided sellers.

The losses occurred because the artworks either sold for less than the minimum price the auction house guaranteed to sellers, or not at all, Sotheby's said in a filing late yesterday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sotheby's agrees to pays some consignors a guarantee regardless of whether a property sells or at what price.

Auction houses use guarantees to encourage art owners to sell through them.

The New York company can "comfortably weather'' the loss, said Lawrence Creatura, a fund manager with Clover Capital Management in Rochester, New York.

BLOOMBERG

[iam802]

Christie's Impressionist Sale Falls Short; 44% Fails to Sell

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... refer=home

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- French billionaire Francois Pinault attended his company Christie's International's New York auction of impressionist and modern art last night, and watched from a sky box as almost half the lots failed to sell.

Buyers passed on 44 percent of the 82 pieces offered. Sales tallied $146.7 million, against the low estimate of $240.7 million. It's the week's third evening auction that missed estimates and a sign the global financial crisis continues to undermine demand for the most-expensive art.

``Obviously, prices have changed,'' said auctioneer Christopher Burge, after the sale. ``We'd be foolish not to recognize that.''

As Pinault looked on, former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner sat in the front row and witnessed bidders pass on second-and third-rate works that might easily have been snapped up in past seasons.

Works by Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and Alexander Archipenko found little or no interest. Collectors felt no urgency to vie for anything less than stellar, especially at prices that seemed suddenly steep, dealers said.

``Before, people were willing to overpay,'' said dealer Christophe Van de Weghe. ``Not anymore.''

A disappointing sale the previous night at Christie's set the stage for last night's low expectations. On Nov. 5, artworks of Park Avenue widow Rita Hillman and real estate heiress Alice Lawrence fetched $47 million, less than half the low estimate of $103 million. On Nov. 3, Sotheby's impressionist sale tallied $223.8 million, a third below the $338 million low estimate.

Sagging Prices

Nonetheless, sagging prices enticed Phoenix real estate developer Lee Hanley to buy an 1882 landscape by Claude Monet. With his wife, Nancy, he paid $1.7 million. The presale low estimate was $1.8 million.

Henley said the top lots were still expensive, though the remainder are about 20 percent cheaper than previous years, enticing enough for him to buy.

Christie's did sell some of the priciest lots, including a record for cubist Juan Gris.

The evening's biggest prize was Gris's green 1915 cubist still-life, ``Livre, pipe et verres,'' estimated to sell for more than $12.5 million. New York private dealer Franck Giraud bought it for $20.8 million. The artist's previous record was $18.5 million for a lilac-colored ``Le pot de geranium,'' set at Christie's in New York in May 2007.

Pablo Picasso's 1934 pastel-hued ``Deux personages (Marie- Therese et sa soeur lisant),'' inspired by the artist's blond mistress, was expected to be the top lot with a presale $25 million high estimate. Instead the painting had one suitor and sold for $18 million.

Striding Males

A rare 1950 Alberto Giacometti bronze sculpture of three striding males, ``Trois Hommes qui marchent I,'' was estimated up to $18 million and sold for just $11.5 million. The anonymous seller had paid $5.7 million for it at Sotheby's in 1999.

The cover lot, Wassily Kandinsky's 1909 vibrantly colored expressionist ``Studie zu Improvisation 3,'' with a man in a cape riding a blue horse, fetched $16.8 million, above the $15 million low estimate. There was one bidder.

Christie's is privately held. Prices include a buyer's premium, or commission, of 25 percent of the hammer price up to $50,000, 20 percent of the price from $50,000 to $1 million, and 12 percent above $1 million. Estimates don't include commissions.

Next week, Sotheby's, Christie's and Philips du Pury & Co. hold their contemporary-art auctions.

[kennynah]

passed by a retail counter in tangs (2nd level) ...there's this counter that sells man-made "diamonds" for a fraction of the cost of the naturally formed ones....really cant tell the difference ... a 3 carat stone cost under S$1k