Maturing Art Market by Sarah Abu Bakar

*This article originally appeared in The Edge.

Featured Items at Our Shop from March - April 2017 (Teapots, Teaset, Guan Yin, Vase and Rooster Cups)

Dear readers,

Below are items featured at our shop from March - April 2017.

Venue : Naik Antiques and Oriental Gifts (Formerly Emperors Antique)

Address: 111M, Jln SS21/37, Damansara Utama, PJ

               (same row as Farmasi Utama)

Please feel free to drop by if you happen to be in the neighbourhood:) 

For further inquiries, please contact May at 018 3867939.

Global Art Sales Plummet, but China Rises as ‘Art Superpower’ By Agence France-Presse

Global art sales plunged in 2016 as the number of high-value works sold dropped by half, while China regained its status as the world’s top market, Artprice said in an annual report released Monday.

Art auctions worldwide totalled $12.5 billion (11.8 billion euros) last year, down 22 percent from $16.1 billion in 2015, the report said.

The world’s biggest database for art prices and sales, working with Chinese partner Artron, attributed the drop to a plunge in the number of works worth more than $10 million each – from 160 in 2015 to 80 last year.

“On all continents, sellers are choosing a policy of ‘wait-and-see,'” Artprice CEO Thierry Ehrmann said.

Top-dollar auctions last year included that of an Impressionist painting of a haystack by Claude Monet, “Meule”, which went for $81.4 million at Christie’s.

A Peter Paul Rubens masterpiece, “Lot and his Daughters”, sold for $58.1 million, also at Christie’s.

Contemporary art had its stand-out moments, too. An untitled painting from American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat went to a Japanese collector for $57.3 million.

Wassily Kandinsky’s “Rigid and Curved” from 1935 went under the hammer for $23.3 million.

China as the biggest market

But it was China which chalked up the highest total sales and “established itself clearly as the superpower” of the art world, the report said.

After five years of dominance, the country lost its title as top art market to the United States in 2015, but a year later was back, recording $4.8 billion in auction sales.

That figure represented 38 percent of total world sales, said Artprice, which compiled the data with its partner firm Artron of China.

Traditional calligraphy and painting comprised the vast majority of sales in China.

The country’s biggest sale in 2016 was a scroll painting of “Five Drunken Kings Return on Horses” by early 14th-century Chinese artist Ren Renfa that went for $45.89 million.

But contemporary art sales, too, are becoming frequent in Hong Kong which “has become an unmissable spot on the art market,” Artprice said.

A year of consolidation

Despite the drop in overall value of sales, the global art market witnessed an 11-percent rise in “fine art” transactions, a category that excludes antiques, applied art like pottery, and furniture.

“The range of prices under $50,000 shows the strongest progression and currently makes up 96 of the market in the West,” the art database said.

In 2016, “the principal objective was to consolidate the core of the market, to the detriment of a new race to reach record prices,” it said.

New York City remained the undisputed capital for art auctions, chalking up $3.2 billion in sales, over Beijing’s $2.3 billion and London’s $2.1 billion.

Chinese artists were also the main moneymakers in the auction world, taking three of the five top spots for 2016 sales.

Works by China’s Zhang Daqian fetched the highest amounts, followed by 20th-century master Pablo Picasso, the Chinese watercolorist Qi Baishi, the “father” of Chinese contemporary art Wu Guanzhong, and the German contemporary artist Gerhard Richter. JB

This article first appeared on Inquirer.net.
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/255698/global-art-sales-plummet-china-rises-art-superpower/

Collecting Guide: Buddhist Sculpture By Tristan Bruck

1.    Become familiar with the history.

Not surprisingly, given the wide reach of his teachings, the Buddha and other Buddhist deities have been interpreted widely, and in many different styles and materials. Artisans have used stone, stucco, terracotta, wood, lacquer, and metals such as bronze, gold, and silver to recreate them.

According to Bruck, identifying a material can help anchor where a certain image was made, and in what time period. ‘Certain materials were favoured in different countries,’ he says. ‘The ancient region of Gandhara in Afghanistan and Pakistan, for example, favoured the sculptural flexibility of stucco, while the medieval Nepalese were among the finest bronze casters in the world.’

Today, the most sought-after Buddhist sculptures are usually gilt-bronzes, with certain time periods particularly attractive to the market. For example, Bruck says, early Ming dynasty works from the reign of the Yongle and Xuande Emperors, the gilt-bronzes of 15th-century Tibet, Licchavi and Malla period Nepalese sculpture, and early Qing dynasty works are all currently fetching high prices.

To begin to be able to distinguish between cultures, styles and historical periods, Bruck suggests that a collector view as many examples of Buddhist sculpture as possible. In New York, he recommends visiting the Rubin Museum of Art, which is dedicated to the art and preservation of the cultures of the Himalayas, India, and neighbouring regions. Other exemplary collections include the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, now housed at Asia Society in New York, the collection established by Norton Simon and housed at the Norton Simon Museum in California, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Great reference books are also a necessity. Two definitive tomes are Ulrich von Schroeder’s Indo-Tibetan Bronzes and Buddhist Sculptures in Tibet, which are carefully organised by type. Bruck notes that they are out of print, so it can take some digging at rare bookstores — and a fair amount of cash — to get your hands on a copy.

Fortunately, there is Himalayan Art Resources — a website run by Jeff Watt, a leading scholar of Himalayan art — which catalogues more than 66,000 images and serves as an excellent starting point for research. 

2.    Tastes change, but quality holds its value.

Bruck explains that the market for Buddhist sculptures can fluctuate, with different periods or styles rising and falling in popularity. An exemplary piece from any time period, however, will hold its value. 

What makes for great quality in a Buddhist sculpture is based on a number of things, including the stylistic modelling of the figure, the rarity of the subject, and the skill of the artist. ‘At the end of the day, people are buying [Buddhist sculptures] because they are beautiful and well made,’ Bruck notes. When considering your price point, he adds, always buy the highest quality work you can afford.

3.    Never judge a piece on photographs alone.

As a universal rule, you should never buy a sculpture unless you have seen it in person. ‘A terrible work can look really great in a photograph, and the converse is true as well,’ Bruck notes.

More than getting a better sense of what the sculpture actually looks like, handling the physical work allows you to study all of its components, including its weight, texture and sometimes even smell. ‘Some experts claims newly-made bronzes have a certain acidic odour, although the legitimacy of this claim I can neither confirm nor deny,’ jokes Bruck. As you start building up your visual memory, you will be able to spot little things that are evidence of something not being quite right with a work.

4.    The back and underneath of a piece can be most revealing.

When forgers make replicas or copies of a sculpture, they generally do so using the aid of published references. In such references, you only see the front of a sculpture — the back and the bottom are not generally published. The forgers recreate these parts from their imaginations, which makes for strange — and frequently bizarre — design components.

For example, Bruck says, the drapery of a Buddha’s robe might fold strangely — or the jewellery of a bodhisattva won’t sit properly. Sometimes, the back of a sculpture looks more cursorily completed than the front, betraying the forger’s lack of concern with making the back look as well finished as the front. For an artisan producing an original, every aspect of the work is equally important.

Bruck recommends that collectors should pay careful attention to the hands, feet, jewellery and drapery. ‘Those are the hardest things to model for anyone.’ If any of these seem poorly rendered, it’s a sign that, at the very least, the work is not of very high quality.

5.    Look for inscriptions.

The artists who created Buddhist sculptures are anonymous. On certain occasions, however, sculptures are marked with inscriptions that indicate they were made during the reign of a certain emperor or in the lifetime of a Tibetan lama (teacher). These works, Bruck says, are particularly valuable.

Inscriptions usually provide additional insight into the lives of those who worshipped them. One particularly interesting group to look out for are works marked with inscriptions that state they belong to the collection of Naga Raja, a 10th-11th century Western Tibetan noble-born monk. He amassed an impressive number of Buddhist sculptures dated from the 8th to the 11th centuries, many of which are in museums today. ‘Bronzes with the Naja Raja inscription are some of my favourites,’ says Bruck. ‘They represent perhaps the earliest recorded collecting history in this field.’

6.    You don’t have to be a Buddhist to appreciate Buddhist sculpture.

Although many collectors are drawn to the religious components of the objects, others appreciate the rich history of more than 2,000 years of Buddhist art. Over that period, Bruck notes, artisans and theologians have delved deeper and deeper into the nature of Buddhism, coming up with new ways to think about the principles of Buddha’s teachings. The resultant esoteric forms, reflected in the diversity of Buddhist deities, and particularly represented in Tibetan-style Buddhism, offer countless avenues for study and appreciation.

An interest in Buddhist sculpture is an interest in ideology, iconography, and the consistency of certain themes throughout millennia — universal themes that can find an audience in everyone.

7.    Condition is key.

As with any other area of collecting art, condition is an important aspect in the value of a work. Given the age of many Buddhist sculptures, however, one must be realistic, and chances are that many examples will have undergone some form of restoration. Unfortunately, some restorations are better than others, and Bruck advises collectors to always consult a specialist to learn how significantly restorative work might change the value of a work.

Different materials obviously have varying levels of durability. Bronze and stone are the most hardy, while stucco, terracotta and lacquer can be difficult to preserve. Bruck advises that those looking to make long-term investments be cautious of any materials that are going to change dramatically due to environmental or natural decay. 

8.    Follow the provenance.

‘A work with old, well-documented provenance will always be worth considerably more than a similar work with no history,’ says Bruck. A rich provenance will sometimes help to ensure authenticity. ‘If a work is from a prestigious collection or has been published by a well-known scholar,’ he adds, ‘then in many cases, it has already gone through a vetting process.’

Like many ancient works, Buddhist sculptures are bound by international laws that sometimes prohibit their sale outside their country of origin. Bruck explains that Chinese works dating from the Tang dynasty or earlier (pre-906 A.D.), for example, must have been outside China prior to 2009, as per the bilateral agreement between the US and China. Cambodia has a similar agreement dated to 1999. Museums in the United States generally stick to a 1970 UNESCO agreement, which protects archaeological sites, when it comes to acquisitions. In general, a collector should learn such laws and protocols to ensure that the works in his or her collection maintain their integrity and value.

This article first appeared on

http://www.christies.com/features/Buddhist-sculpture-Collecting-guide-7782-1.aspx

Collecting Guide: 5 Things to Know about Chinese Snuff Bottles

The tiny and exquisitely beautiful curiosities that once housed           tobacco are highly prized. Specialist Margi Gristina advises on how 

to start a collection.

1. Sharpen your eye.

The field of snuff bottles is vast, and like other categories of Qing dynasty works of art they include examples across many mediums: glass, stone, jade, agate, wood, ivory, lacquer and mixed media.

To sharpen one’s eye, it is helpful to look at as many examples as possible. If you’re attracted to a particular type, such as carved overlay glass, focus on this group to understand subtle differences in workmanship. For example, one bottle may exhibit a rare colour combination, while others may show a rare scene, or very fine carving.

2. Handle as many as possible.

Snuff bottles were made to fit comfortably in the hand. One of the pleasures of collecting them is handling them, so be sure to handle as many bottles as you can. Feel the difference in weight between a well-hollowed bottle and one that has not been so carefully refined. Notice the years of wear that can bring the surface of a piece to a soft and luxurious polish.

3. Select the best - whatever your price range.

Whatever your price range, look for outstanding examples. An imperial glass snuff bottle can be acquired for under $3,000, while superb and rare examples can range from tens to hundreds of thousands. Imperial, 18th-century bottles with reign marks tend to achieve the highest prices at auction, particularly those in painted enamel on glass or metal.

4. Seek established provenance.

There have been a number of distinguished collections of snuff bottles sold at auction over the past 10 years. Selecting works that were once part of an esteemed and carefully selected collection, such as the J&J Collection, can offer the novice collector a reassurance of quality, authenticity and value.

5. Never stop learning.

When starting any collection, it is useful to read as much about the category as possible. There have been many informative books on snuff bottles published in the last 20 years, filled with useful attribution information as well as beautiful photography. Also, consult the Journal of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society for the most recent and up-to-date scholarship. The ICSBS comprises a passionate group of collectors, dealers and auction house specialists and holds annual conventions that are not to be missed by the serious collector.

This article originally appeared on  http://www.christies.com/features/Chinese-Snuff-Bottles-Collecting-Guide-7650-1.aspx

 

 

Our Interview with Capital TV

Not too long ago, I was asked by a friend if I would be interested to be interviewed by a TV station....with the interview being carried out in BM. The first thing that crossed my mind was, 'How in the world am I to pull this off when the only BM words I know and remember are meant for social interaction?' Nevertheless, I took him up on his offer and proceeded with the interview. I had butterflies in my stomach the night before (the interview) all the way up to the early session of the interview. Thankfully, the interview went well :p Needless to say, I was over the moon! Special thanks again to Adi Azhar Majid and Capital TV for this wonderful experience! Looking forward to watching the entire interview on DVD! To view the 5 min snippet of the interview, please go to:

https://youtu.be/BeHgh3URACI

Enjoy!

May Naik

The Rise of Southeast Asian Art - Where Does Malaysia Stand? By Mae Chan