Reports artasiapacific.com^47Auction Report
Changing Gears
Christie’s reported a sales tally of
USD 332.8 million, the highest it
has ever achieved during the annual
event. This was largely due to the
evening sale of Chinese art from
the Fujita Museum, which mainly
attracted buyers from mainland
China keen to bring masterpieces
back home. The record-breaking
sale raked in USD 262.8 million
and included the top-selling lot of
the week, a 13th-century ink scroll
depicting a dragon by Chen Rong
which sold for USD 48.9 million,
establishing a new record for a
Chinese painting sold outside Asia.
Christie’s major competitor did
not fare as well. During Asia Week,
Sotheby’s raked in a final sum of
USD 52.4 million. On the morning of
March 16, Sotheby’s conducted its
sale of modern and contemporary
South Asian art. With a sales total
of USD 6.6 million, down from last
year’s USD 8.2 million, and with only
half the number of lots compared to
2016, it was clear that buyers were
more selective and that the auction
house was unable to attract major
works for consignment.
The paintings that sold had price
tags ranging from USD 3,750 to 1.7
million; the top lot was an untitled
painting created in the last decade
of the 19th century by neoclassicist
Raja Ravi Varma. Inspired by a story
in the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata,
the heroine, Damayanti, is depicted
in this painting longing for her lover
in the moonlight, while her maid
stands nearby, patiently consoling
her. Declared a national artist, few of
Varma’s works are available outside
of India. This rare find caught a
collector’s eye, far surpassing its
high estimate of USD 700,000. A
figurative painting by MF Husain,
and early landscapes by SH Raza
created in the late 1940s, also sold
well above their high estimates.
There were some evident cases
of flipping. Acquired only two years
ago by a collector in Florida, the
oil-on-canvas Untitled (A Brahmin
Household) (date unknown) by
Capri-born painter Horace van
Ruith was again on the market.RAJA RAVI VARMA
UNTITLED (DAMAYANTI)
c. 1890–1900
Oil on canvas, 73 x 52.7 cm.
Courtesy Sotheby’s New York.
Every year when the buds begin
to bloom, we are reminded of the
opening lines of TS Eliot’s The
Waste Land (1922): “April is the
cruellest month.” Truer words
have never been applied to this
year’s spring, where unpredictable
turbulence and territorial warfare
has dominated headlines, causing
widespread consternation and
anxiety, during what should have
been a highly anticipated start to
the auction season. In the United
Kingdom, Prime Minister Theresa
May enacted Article 50 on March
29, officially starting the country’s
divorce from the European Union.
In the United States, PresidentDonald J. Trump gave his critics
even more reason to label his
administration as nepotistic with
the appointment of his eldest
daughter as an adviser (after he
hired his son-in-law in January),
only to quickly upstage his own
headlines by commanding a missile
strike in Syria on April 7. Tragic
attacks in London, Stockholm,
St. Petersburg and Alexandria,
resulting in numerous fatalities and
injuries, are fast creating strong
ripples of fear.
In these unpredictable times,
some investors seek stability by
parking their cash in art. Those who
go down this road must commit to
the long haul and brush off market
vacillations. Based on two reports
that provided analyses of the 2016
art market—the first released by
TEFAF, and the other by Art Basel/
UBS in March—the market’s size
has shrunk since 2015. The latter’s
findings indicate that the global
art market achieved total sales of
USD 56.6 billion in 2016, with a
five-percent decrease year-on-
year in the number of transactions.
However, despite political and
economic uncertainty, the US, UK
and China remain the three key
players in the art market, accounting
for 81 percent of total sales by value.
One of the key trends in 2016
was a move away from auction
houses. Art buyers gravitated
toward private dealers, favoring
financial opacity and closed-door
operations over public bidding.
However, for those who are
persistent and can thrive in the
open environment, auctions are
one way to source rare, essential
pieces of art.
The auction season kicked off in
New York with the Asia Week New
York (3/9–18), with sales organized
by five auction houses, among
them the top three international
companies: Christie’s, Sotheby’s
and Bonhams. Presented goods
included antiques, snuff bottles,
Chinese works of art and objects
from India, Himalaya and Southeast
Asia. By the end of the week,