Qing Jewelry in HK Spring Auctions
By admin on 2015-01-05

While the international art market last year witnessed a solid recovery from the global recession with buyers from China playing an increasingly important role, this year auction giants like Sotheby's and Christie's are looking for even better results from the exponentially-expanding local scene.

Sotheby's 2010 Hong Kong Spring Auctions will be held from April 3 to 8, hoping to unveil a new round of fierce bidding in the Chinese art market. As usual, the results will set the tone for the season, offering experts and other auction houses a clue on how to speculate on the potential of this year's art market.

Eight featured auctions will be held in the six-day-long spring sales, with more than 2,400 pieces going under the hammer, including Chinese antiques and modern paintings, contemporary Asian works, diamonds, rare watches and other items. The gross estimate price of all pieces is over 1 billion Hong Kong dollars ($129 million).

In light of the improving Asian art market during 2009's autumn auctions, this year the estimated prices of some of Sotheby's Hong Kong's articles are up by 10 percent, according to Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer of Sotheby's Asia.

"Hong Kong has become one of the most vigorous regions in selling artworks. A large group of buyers from Asia, especially from the Chinese mainland, arrive here several times each year to search for good works and we are confident that with the estimated uplifted prices there will be good sales this spring."

Catering to the large group of Chinese collectors, Imperial Power is one of Sotheby's new themes, featuring a series of antique porcelains and artifacts from China's imperial past, among which several pieces are very rare and believed to have once belonged to several Chinese emperors from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

A very rare circular-shaped seal carved from white jade, that is believed to have once belonged to Emperor Qianlong (1711-99), is the highlight of the Imperial Power section. The seal is said to have been part of the collection of the Old Summer Palace, lost when the garden complex was looted by Anglo-French invaders in 1860. The piece is expected to fetch more than $6.5 million, according to Nicholas Chow, International Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at Sotheby's Hong Kong.

Another prominent item in the collection is a ceremonial necklace that formed part of the splendid insignia of Chinese emperors, which is believed to have belonged to Emperor Yongzheng (1678-1735). It is made from freshwater pearls produced in Northeast China, where the royal family of Qing originated.

"We notice that Chinese antique collectors are very interested in works with this theme, because in buying antiques they have a fixation about buying their own history," Chow explained.

He added that imperial antiques have always been an important feature in Sotheby's auctions and in view of the increasing number of Chinese collectors and their huge buying power in Chinese antiques in recent years, the auction house tried even harder than ever to source works of this kind.

A handful of modern and contemporary Chinese artworks will also be featured in the upcoming sales, as both of them have great potential, according to Ching.

"We have seen a rebound in contemporary work at international auctions earlier this year and the market here will also head toward recovery, as China is one of the most vigorous economic powers," Ching said.

Although the prices of Chinese contemporary art have declined significantly over the past two years, which to a large extent discouraged many big collectors from adding to their collection, Ching said that Sotheby's Hong Kong still attaches great importance to Chinese contemporary works and a series of early works by established contemporary artists such as Cai Guoqiang, Zeng Fanzhi and Yue Minjun will feature in the spring sales.

Chinese art master Qi Baishi's painting Tiger will also be a highlight of the sales as 2010 is the Chinese year of tiger and it is very rare to see a tiger as the subject of Qi's work as he did very few tiger-themed pieces.

Qi's works are the most heavily pursued on the Chinese art market and following Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, he was the third bestselling artist in terms of world art sales last year, according to the art sales ranking from art market data organization Art Price.