First Solo Energy Painting Exhibition (in Malaysia) & Auction

I attended the First Solo Energy Art Painting Exhibition (in Malaysia), which was followed by a mini auction of some contemporary art at the One Utama Shopping Mall this afternoon. There was a small crowd of people there by the time my parents and I had arrived. The speaker was in the midst of thanking the artist, Master Roong Huah, for volunteering to donate the proceeds from the sale of ten of his paintings to charity. We did not manage to stay till the end of the auction.

        However, attending this event taught me one thing - Auctioning off your items will not necessarily guarantee you high returns. The estimated price of most of the featured paintings was approximately US$950. Granted we only managed to stay for the biddings of two paintings, but we were surprised that the opening and closing bid for them were significantly lesser than the estimated price.  

        We only have a small collection of Chinese paintings, most of which were bought for their fine workmanship. Over the past few months, I was repeatedly told by a number of art collectors and dealers that collecting paintings by reputable artists is a sound investment as they are very much sought after by other collectors. This was quite evident in the last auction I had attended in April where paintings by popular Asian artists consistently fetched higher prices than the lesser known ones. I’ve heard that demand for Malaysian art is slowly gaining popularity among Malaysians and foreigners alike. I can't help but wonder if this is true. More importantly, has there been any research carried out to verify this claim?