The results of the March auction of Asian art: the success of Christie's
ARTinvestment.RU   10 апреля 2008

Christie House

house Christie's International in New York the most successful in its history the Asian art auctions. Past at the same time, a similar auction of Sotheby's showed a much worse outcome.

Profit Christie's, far surpassing the total of all the exposed estimeyt lots (45,7-63,6 million), amounted to 80,1 million dollars, including commission. Bidding Sotheby's had only 46, 4 million dollars, which was lower than even the lower limit of the total estimeyta (51,9-72,9 million dollars).

biggest parties the world art market, auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's have always been irreconcilable rivals, including in relation to sales and profits derived from each auction. Recently, these figures do not speak in favor of Sotheby's. Experts attributed the situation emerging recession the U.S. economy and volatility in financial markets. «Losses in the financial markets, and the closure of hedge funds are concerned that may affect the decline in demand in the market of art», - said Jody Kane, an analyst Sidoti & Co.

The success of the auction of Asian art at Christie's was largely due to the fall of the dollar (including in relation to the yen), which allowed Japanese consumers to make large transactions in the auction. Played a role, and attention, which in recent years Christie's has given the Japanese auctions. The most significant events of the past trades can be considered a sale of wooden Buddha for 14.4 million dollars in one of the owners of the Japanese Mitsukoshi Co. This amount was a record for the works of Japanese art.

Lack of foresight Sotheby's, not notice in time the prospects for the Japanese market, obviously, was one of the main reasons for the failure of the March auction. It should be recognized that the market potential of Asian art unusually high, as evidenced by the growth of total return from April's Asian auctions Sotheby's and Christie's in 2007 to 32 per cent (from 97.9 to 129.4 million dollars) compared to the result of 2006.

Upcoming auctions of Asian art auction houses will be held in Hong Kong in April and May of this year.

Source: http://www.sgallery.net