Christie’s International set a record of HK$3.65 billion ($470 million) for a series of Hong Kong auctions last night as Chinese bidders battled for items from their heritage. The figure would have been higher had an 18th- century Chinese vase valued at HK$200 million sold.
The six-day event was estimated to raise HK$2.4 billion from the sale of fine wines, gems, watches, Chinese ceramics, classical paintings and Asian contemporary art. The figure beat the HK$3.49 billion at Sotheby’s (BID) in April -- where some lots achieved prices there were multiples of estimates and others failed to sell -- and Christie’s equivalent sale last year, which made HK$2.29 billion.
“A lot of coal miners and listed company owners and financiers have built wealth and are comfortable spending it on art,” Qian Weipeng, a Shanghai-based dealer, said in an interview at the sale.
Chinese bidding was more intense than ever, especially for porcelain, said dealers. The Chinese antiques trade has an annual value of more than $10 billion. The country overtook the U.S. as the biggest auction market for fine art last year, research company Artprice said.
More than 1 million millionaires live in China, up from 190,000 six years earlier, their ranks swollen last year by economic growth, savings and a strengthening currency, according to a Boston Consulting Group survey. That puts China in third place for millionaire households, behind the 5.22 million in the U.S. and Japan’s 1.53 million.
Still, China’s wealth was not enough to push prices high enough for the Qianlong vase, the most anticipated and expensive lot of the entire sale.
Pierced Decoration
The 15 inch (38.1 cm) vase is lantern-shaped, with scrolling hibiscus flowers on a yellow background. The inner vase serves as the pivot around which the outside vase revolves, allowing different interior scenes to be viewed through four pierced circular panels.
It has the same pierced decoration as the 18th-century Imperial vase that was bid to 51.6 million pounds ($83.2 million) -- the highest ever for a Chinese artwork -- at Bainbridges, west London, last November.
Bainbridges said in February that it hadn’t received payment. It has since refused to comment. Mindful of such reports, Christie’s introduced for the first time the requirement that bidders pay a deposit of HK$1 million on any items valued at HK$8 million or more.
“It was a very pushy estimate,” Richard Marchant, a London-based dealer, said of the Christie’s vase. While he didn’t bid on the vase, Marchant bought three other pieces.
