More Chinese Drama

In the wake of all the YSL sales bliss, the winning bidder of the the two controversial Chinese bronzes has been announced: a Chinese man with connections to a Chinese non-profit called the National Treasures Fund. But there's a catch: he's not paying. 

Cai  Mingchao says he never had any intention of paying for the bronzes and just wanted to raise awareness about their true home in Chinese cultural history. He says they should be immediately returned to the Chinese - who, also, shouldn't have to pay for them. 

In one of my classes we're studying Cultural Property and Arts Repatriation initiatives so this is a really interesting side note to all this. The LA Times was one of the first to break this story and put an interesting spin on it. 

New Season of Auctions

So the latest auction season has officially started. I like to follow the auctions quite closely (or at least those at Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips de Pury) to get an idea of the value and valuation of works of art at market right now. It's so difficult to get any price information from galleries unless they think you're a serious buyer, so this is really the most transparent and easily accessible way possible. 

The New York Times, published this story recently on the Old Masters auctions. On the whole, the action didn't do quite as well as "expected" but then again we didn't really think it would. I'm sure the estimates were really just an attempt for the auction house management to appease the consignors. I mean, they have to think they'll get something for the work or they won't bring it to auction. Sometime soon, the auctions will have to rethink their marketing ploys. They can't get works just to fill up their auctions, if none of them are going to sell. It's all about managing expectations of consignors and making them understand that you can't get top dollar at every state of the economy. 

Anyway,  "One of J. M. W. Turner’s classically romantic images brought $13 million at Sotheby’s on Thursday morning, becoming the most expensive work in two days of turbulent old master painting sales." but otherwise there were few notable sales. 

This Hendrick ter Brugghen sold for a record $10.2 million after a bit of a bidding battle between the buyer, Richard Feigen and a phone bidder.