Asian Works Go East

Asian art used to be the domain of scholars and intellectuals. While it’s easy to love a Degas, not everyone gets woozy over an agate snuff bottle, the glazes of Song ceramics, or the metallurgical brilliance of a 14th-century Japanese sword blade. But now that newly rich Chinese and Indian buyers are flooding the art market, Asian art is the field to watch. This growing pool of buyers, combined with the threat of wildly restrictive exportation laws proposed by the Chinese government, has created a lot of heat in the Asian art market.“The Chinese buyers are still the most eager of all in the market,” said dealer James Lally of J.J. Lally & Co. “There is a gradual but steady interest among new buyers in China who regard Chinese art as an investment. There is concern among old hands that this could spiral into a bubble.”This week collectors who love Tang horses, Gandharan Buddhas, and carved red lacquer boxes are on the prowl in New York. Auction previews at Sotheby’s and Christie’s are open for viewing, and sales start next week. On April 1, the International Asian Art Fair, where the moguls shop, opens at the Park Avenue Armory. The Arts of the Pacific Fair, where mortals shop, opens downtown at the Gramercy Park Armory the same day. Dealers around town also have saved up their best and are putting up show stopping exhibits.“The early sniffers are already here,” said Asian art consultant and writer, Laura Whitman. “If you’re really serious, you want to come early and enjoy the party later. There’s nothing more powerful than standing at the center of the fair and knowing you’ve already bagged something important.”A number of forces drive this new band of buyers. The banks and stock market in China aren’t especially evolved institutions – not great places to plant vast sums of money. And if a buyer wishes to shelter some money from the tax man, buying a $400,000 Buddha works just fine. For young Chinese businessmen, cultural associations also come into play.“You’re not going to buy a yacht,” said Ms. Whitman of the Chinese mega millionaires. “You’re going to buy an archaic bronze and stick it in your office. It shows you’re cultured, and it’s a sign of the new China. It’s pride in China and patriotism.”That’s good news for the Asian art market. American collectors of Chinese works of art tend to be in their 70s and 80s – and they haven’t bought for a decade or two. The strength of the market has brought out some items tailor-made to suit these collectors’ tastes. Christie’s is holding five sales, including a single-owner sale of 88 snuff bottles and a collection of Japanese swords from a private museum in Tokyo that has been dissolved.One of Christie’s star groupings is 59 lots of ceramics dating to the Song Dynasty (10th-13th centuries), assembled over 40 years by New Orleans neurologist Dr. Robert Barron III. He began collecting in the early 1960s, while studying medicine at Montreal General Hospital, then bought more in the 1970s and 1980s, shopping at dealers and auction houses in New York and London.The cases, all monochromatic and of simple lines, are the apotheosis of haute understatement. “None of this material screams ‘I’m the biggest, I’m the best,'” said Mr. Lally of Barron’s collection. “But each object stands out on its own.”Layered glazes made from milky whites, celadon greens, delicate turquoises, and toffee browns coat the bowls, dishes, water pots, jars, and incised boxes. Estimates start in the $3,000 range for a small box and climb to $40,000-$60,000 for a large vase. Dealers say the prices are conservative and expect fireworks when they hit the block March 30.Christie’s also is offering a collection of Indian and Southeast Asian sculptures, collected by a neurosurgeon and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. William T. Price, from Amarillo, Texas. The Prices also collect Japanese woodblock prints, and both collections have been exhibited at the Amarillo Museum of Art. One highlight is an 11th-century sandstone statue of a goddess from Cambodia, estimated at $250,000-$350,000.Last year Christie’s sold a Cambodian goddess from the same date and place for $1.1 million, setting a record for Khmer sculpture sold at auction. The record helped Christie’s land the Price consignment. The Price figure reflects the height of Khmer aesthetics, Christie’s Southeast Asian and Indian art expert, Hugo Weihe, said. The topless statue could very well sell to a collector who buys antiquities or Old Masters or contemporary art. Today, for top specimens, there is plenty of crossover.While at Christie’s more is more – with five sales, 1,325 lots, and presale estimates totaling $21-29 million – Sotheby’s is taking a more modest approach. Sotheby’s is holding just two sales: one in Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, expected to fetch $9.1-12.8 million, and another in Indian and Southeast Asian Art, estimated to bring in $4.2-6.1 million.The downside of the new Chinese buyer is that once something returns to China, it may be out of circulation. That’s because the Chinese government has requested that the U.S. government stop importation on all Chinese art dating from the Paleolithic era up to 1911 – a mere 25,000 years worth of artistic output. This is ostensibly to curtail archeological looting but dealers say that’s hooey – the government just wants to keep the Chinese market at home. Even Ms. Whitman says she has been stockpiling Chinese art in case the laws change and these works are suddenly un-importable.But there are signs the Chinese aren’t the only ones pumping up the market. Both houses have fielded large selections of Indian contemporary painting – something sought after both by Indians living in India and those living in the United States and Europe.The climbing Indian economy has brought in new buyers. And whereas the China door might be closing, India is swinging the door open. Within the last two years, said Mr. Dean, India removed restrictions on how much a private individual can buy outside of India and bring back home. Without restrictions, Indian buyers are now free to spend as much as they like, and spend they are. Auction houses in India are now regularly hitting million-dollar prices, and in New York prices are climbing.With two new groups of buyers jumping into markets traditionally dominated by American and European collectors, Asia Week should be Asia gone wild. “I think we’re going to find people who haven’t bought for a while are going to come out in full force,” said Ms. Whitman.“Japanese and Korean Art” on March 29; “Important Swords From the Museum of Japanese Sword Fittings” March 29; “Important Chinese Snuff Bottles From the J & J Collection, Part II” March 30; “Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art” March 30; “Indian and Southeast Asian Art Including Modern and Contemporary Indian Art” March 31. All at Christie’s (20 Rockefeller Plaza, 212-492-5485).“Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art” March 31 & April 1; “Indian & Southeast Asian Art” April 1. All at Sotheby’s (1334 York Avenue, 212-606-7000).ON THE BLOCK AT ASIA WEEKBottle with enamel scene of European woman and child, with a pearl stopperIt was fashionable for Chinese emperors in the 18th century to give elaborate snuff bottles as gifts. This one comes marked from the Palace Workshops from the Qianlong period (1736-1750) – just what the Chinese buyer loves.(Lot 50, Important Chinese Snuff Bottles From the J & J Collection, Part II, Christie’s, March 30)Estimate: $250,000-$300,0006 small stucco heads, 3rd or 4th centuryThe Metropolitan Museum of Art is unloading a load of Buddhas. These graceful top-knotted fellows were given to the Met in 1931.(Lot 1, Indian and Southeast Asian Art, Christie’s, March 31)Estimate: $1,200-$1,80018th-century dagger, with carved ivory handle in the form of two lionsThis dagger is a “gupti,” or concealed weapon, which was kept hidden inside the handle of a short stick.(Lot 94, Indian and Southeast Asian Art, Christie’s, March 31)Estimate: $25,000-$30,00010 amusing Chinese paintings of soldiers, painted for the Qianlong Emperor around 1760In 1955, Mrs. Nancy Shaver Busey, from Nitro, West Virginia, stumbled on these paintings while traveling in Berlin and bought them for her husband. Collectors used to consider such works boring and academic. But now they are in demand by Chinese collectors afflicted by Imperial fever.(Lot 280, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, March 31 & April 1)Estimate: $100,000-$150,000

Asian Works Go East

Asian Works Go East

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