Want FREE Advice/Opinion on Your Collection?

Dear readers, 

We've had collectors contacting us from time to time seeking our opinion on their private collection. As such,  I'm pleased to announce that we recently created a group called Chinese Ceramics and Collectibles Forum with the sole purpose of sharing photos, ideas and opinions. All you have to do is:

1. Join Chinese Ceramics and Collectibles Forum.
2. Wait for request to be approved.
3. Upload photos.

So, if you or any of your family or friends are seeking FREE opinion or advice on their collection, pls feel free to share this with them. 

Regards

May Naik

A $100 Million Mystery: A Russian, His Art, and His Big Losses By Katya Kazakina and Hugo Miller

It was meant to be one of the world’s top collections of 20th century art, anchored by Amedeo Modigliani nudes and Claude Monet water lilies.

But two years after Dmitry Rybolovlev sued his dealer, alleging he was overcharged by as much as $1 billion, the Russian fertilizer magnate is unloading works he acquired at often record prices. He has already sold three for a loss totaling an estimated $100 million, and is offering five more at Christie’s auctions in London starting next week, some for a fraction of their purchase prices.

Rybolovlev—whose fortune totals about $9.8 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index—invested about $2 billion in 38 works, from Leonardo da Vinci to Pablo Picasso. They were procured privately by Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier, better known for creating a network of tax-free art storage warehouses in Singapore and Luxembourg.

Rybolovlev was among new buyers from Russia, China and other emerging economies who drove an unprecedented expansion of the art market in the past decade. Booming wealth created a network of collectors hungry for trophies by top modern and contemporary Western artists and willing to pay almost anything. Between 2003—the year Rybolovlev met Bouvier—and 2014, global sales more than tripled to $68 billion.

Since then, the market has contracted, and some of the art world’s most expensive pieces have been resold for less than their purchase price, mired in lawsuits and investigations.

Two Rybolovlev trusts in the British Virgin Islands recouped “less than $50 million” when the Russian sold Paul Gauguin’s “Otahi,” according to court papers they filed in New York. That’s about 60 percent below the $120 million Rybolovlev paid. In November 2015, he sold Gustav Klimt’s “Wasserschlangen II” for $170 million, down from the $183.8 million purchase price. In May 2016, his Auguste Rodin sculpture, “L’Eternel Printemps,” fetched $20.4 million, an auction record for the artist but less than a half the $48.1 million he paid.

* For the full story, pls go to:
 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-23/a-100-million-mystery-a-russian-his-art-and-his-big-losses

Selamat Hari Raya to All Muslim Readers!

Here's wishing all Muslim readers Selamat Hari Raya! May you have a joyous and blessed celebration with your family and friends!

Warm regards.

May 

Can You Guess How Much These Artworks Are Worth? By James Tarmy and Lili Rosboch

Auction houses don’t simply pluck prices for their sales out of nowhere. They assign estimates based on what previous, comparable artworks have sold for. The logic is the same as with real estate: If the market can sustain a price for one work, it can probably pay the same amount (if not more) for another.

Yet oftentimes it doesn’t quite work as planned. The thrill of an auction is watching furious bidding push an artwork’s price millions of dollars above its estimate—or on the flip-side, watching a supposedly million-dollar painting fail to find a single buyer.

Take the quiz in the link below to find out exactly how much some of these art pieces sold for:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-17/quiz-how-expensive-is-this-piece-of-art   


Have fun!

Here's Why The Art Market Could Soar by Robert Frank

Conventional wisdom holds that the art market is highly cyclical and moves with stock markets.

But recent comments from Sotheby's CEO Tad Smith suggest that fine art prices have room to grow — and may be in for a structural (rather than cyclical) surge.

Sotheby's looked at the wealth of today's billionaires and compared it to the most expensive works of art sold. To do this, Sotheby's used the 201st richest American on the Forbes 400 to get a median wealth level. In 2006, the 201st on the list would have had to spend 10 percent of their wealth to buy the most expensive piece of art sold that year. In 2016, that same number was only around 5 percent.

In 2006, the 201st wealthiest person would have had to spend 70 percent of their fortune to buy all of the top 10 pieces of art sold at auction that year. In 2016, that same number was 40 percent.

"In other words, the median member of the Forbes 400 would have seen his personal spending power to purchase art at auction grow 75 percent in the past decade alone," Smith said.

Granted, not every billionaire collects art, and even the most avid collectors aren't likely to spend 10 percent of their wealth on a painting. And billionaire fortunes aren't that liquid — most are in the form of operating businesses rather than cash that can be handed over to Sotheby's.

Yet, the numbers counter the perception that art prices have soared beyond the reach or rationale of even the wealthiest buyers.

There are not only more billionaires in the world than ever — more than 2,000 — but their fortunes have grown far more rapidly than art prices. And that could make today's most expensive art look relatively cheap in the future.

This article first appeared on CNBC.
www.cnbc.com/2017/05/10/heres-why-the-art-market-could-soar.html

Setting Up Shop at The Lovely Alpina Residensi Showroom fr 20th - 21st May 2017 :)

Dear readers,

We'll be spending the weekend at the lovely Alpina Residensi showroom:) Pls feel free to drop by and say hi and check out their newly launched Semi-D units if you happen to be in the area.

Asia Week New York Pulls In Record $423 Million, Fueled by Massive Christie’s Sale by Sarah Cascone

It was the most successful Asia Week New York ever, by the numbers, with a reported $423 million in sales. A huge figure by any metric, the total blows away the $130 million in 2016 sales, which were undoubtedly affected by raids from federal officials that saw eight potentially-stolen items seized. In 2015, Asia Week saw $360 million in sales.

Now in its eighth edition, Asia Week had over $406 million in sales this year from its five participating auction houses: Sotheby’s New York, Christie’s New York, Bonhams New York, Doyle New York, and iGavel, Inc. Asia Week also saw a record 50 international art galleries take part for 2017.

“With the influx of Chinese buyers, museum curators and collectors, Asia Week New York ended on an upbeat note with record-breaking sales in all categories,” said Asia Week chairman Lark Mason in a statement.

Leading the charge was Christie’s March 15 sale of “Important Chinese Art From the Fujita Museum,” in Osaka, Japan. Sales on the night amounted to a hefty $262.84 million, over 60 percent of the week’s total. Despite an estimate of just $1.2–1.8 million, a Chen Rong handscroll titled Six Dragons sold for an astonishing $48.97 million.

Other top lots included a Bronze ritual ram-form wine vessel from the Shang dynasty, 13th–11th century BC, that blew away a $6–8 million estimate with a $27.1 million price tag, and three bronze ritual wine vessels that sold for $37.21 million, $33.85 million, and $27.13 million each.

Over at Sotheby’s, a large blue and white reserve-decorated “peony” dish topped its presale estimate, of $1–1.5 million, fetching $2.17 million at the sale titled “Ming: The Intervention of Imperial Taste” on March 17. The top lot of the day, which saw $11.34 million in total sales, was a rare Anhua-decorated Tianbai-glazed Meiping, which sold for $3.13 million on a $2.3–2.8 million estimate.

On March 15, Bonhams had a 95.71 percent sell-through rate for “The Zuiun Collection.” The house made $677,750 on the night, with a Qin dynasty patinated sandalwood scepter selling over nine times its high estimate, for a total of $90,000, for the auction’s top sale.

This article first appeared on Artnet News. 

https://news.artnet.com/market/asia-week-new-york-423-million-in-sales-898340