Auction

Forging an Art Market in China

“Forging an Art Market in China”

by David Barboza, Graham Bowley and Amanda Cox via “The New York Times”

“When the hammer came down at an evening auction during China Guardian’s spring sale in May 2011, “Eagle Standing on a Pine Tree,” a 1946 ink painting by Qi Baishi, one of China’s 20th-century masters, had drawn a startling price: $65.4 million. No Chinese painting had ever fetched so much at auction, and, by the end of the year, the sale appeared to have global implications, helping China surpass the United States as the world’s biggest art and auction market.

But two years after the auction, . . . “

Western Masterpieces Offered up to Chinese Buyers

“Western Masterpieces Offered up to Chinese Buyers”

By Sébastien Blanc via “SCMP”

“Beijing (AFP) – A $50 million Rembrandt portrait takes pride of place in a Beijing hotel room, with Picassos and Renoirs dotting the walls as major Western auction houses look to tempt China’s super-rich with Europe’s finest art.

The exhibition, running until Sunday, ranks among the more distinguished displays of Western art seen in the Chinese capital, but is actually a private sale . . . “

Christie’s Shanghai: The Making of an Auction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L3wgWSc-hA

“China’s Broken Art Market”

“China’s Broken Art Market”

by Felix Salmon via “Reuters“

“When 2011 came to an end, the dominance of Chinese artists in the international league tables was clear, if puzzling. Three of the top five artists, in terms of sales, and both of the top two, were Chinese; Zhang Daqian alone managed to gross more than half a billion dollars at auction that year, the first time any artist had come anywhere near that level.

But no one knew what was really going on. One theory — which the peddlers of . . . “