Collectors Look East
In the world of Asian art, the center of gravity is shifting to the East.
For years, New York's Asia Week, which starts Tuesday, has attracted well-heeled collectors and big-name dealers. But more mainland Chinese are acquiring the wealth and sophistication to become collectors. That has prompted Hong Kong dealers to create a rival art festival in their city, which will be launched with two fairs this May.
Andy Hei, a Hong Kong-based dealer in Chinese furniture, says the market for his goods in the West has slowed while his own gallery "is seeing more and more mainlanders." This year, Mr. Hei isn't going to ship any of his objects to the New York show after more than a decade of participating in the event. Instead, he is spearheading one of the two new Hong Kong shows, the International Asian Antique & Art Fair. That show is attracting more than a dozen local and international dealers, including Robert Hall and Fabio Rossi from England and Paris-based Christian Deydier.
A 14th-century Chinese jar will be on the auction block during New York's Asia week.
"The Far East is a developing and growing market," says Mr. Rossi. He says he made "a few important sales" last year to dealers working on behalf of mainland clients, involving Mongolian and Tibetan bronzes. Rather than wait for these buyers to come to the West, he adds, "I will come to them."
New York Goes Contemporary
The second new Hong Kong art fair, sponsored by a consortium of Chinese museums, has a name similar to Mr. Hei's. The Asia International Arts & Antiques Fair has lined up more than 30 local exhibitors. Both fairs are scheduled to coincide with Christie's Hong Kong spring sales set for May 28-31.
This shift in the global art market is taking some steam out of Asia Week New York. That series of shows was given its moniker in 1996, after two Asian art fairs timed their launch to coincide with Christie's and Sotheby's auctions of Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian art in the city. The events attracted so many buyers that numerous galleries started holding private shows during the same period. The annual blowout typically attracts about 140 Asian art vendors, and 2005's auctions brought in $58 million in sales.
But while traditional Chinese works remain the centerpiece at Asia Week, organizers are moving into contemporary Asian art and Islamic art. The International Asia Art Fair, one of the premiere New York events, has broadened its scope to include African, Oceanic and contemporary Asian art. With some dealers in Chinese goods deciding not to attend, including Mr. Hei, Grace Wu Bruce and Marcus Flacks, organizers have opened the floor to exhibitors such as African specialists Tambaran Gallery and Donald Morris Gallery of New York, and contemporary art vendors such as Sundaram Tagore Gallery, which handles new works by Indian artists.
Meanwhile, New York's Arts of Pacific Asia Show will continue to feature traditional Chinese exhibitions, but this year the fair expects a greater presence by Islamic-art dealers. Show organizer Bill Caskey says that with Iraq and Middle East politics in the news, "people want to diversify their collections and want to know more about" the history of Islam.
Sotheby's and Christie's are introducing separate catalogs for their New York shows featuring contemporary Asian and Indian art. Sotheby's estimates it will take in $6 million to $8 million from these goods, out of its total Asia Week estimate of $31 million to $43 million. Christie's, meantime, estimates it will fetch $7 million to $9 million from its auction next Friday of 166 lots of contemporary Indian art. That sale is believed to be the largest and most diversified selection of Indian art ever offered by an international auction house. Christie's estimate for its total Asia Week sales is $29 million to $40 million.
In 2000, Christie's stopped selling Chinese paintings in New York because it was having trouble sourcing enough of them for both the Hong Kong and New York markets. While Christie's New York saw its sales of Chinese antiques rise to $28.4 million in 2005 from $24.2 million in 2001, its Hong Kong sales more than doubled since 2001, hitting $59.5 million last year. At Sotheby's New York, meantime, sales of Chinese works have risen steadily, reaching $29.5 million last year. But Sotheby's sales of Chinese art in Hong Kong jumped to $94.3 million last year from $18.5 million in 2001.
Record Prices on Mainland
The Western auction houses can expect to see more competition from their Chinese counterparts. Sales at mainland auctions jumped to $1.1 billion last year from less than $50 million in 1999, says Zhang Yan Hua, director of the China Association of Auctioneers. (This figure includes modern and contemporary paintings, whereas the Sotheby's and Christie's figures don't.)
Mainland auction houses have also started to ring up world-record prices. Lu Shao Yan's Du Fu Poem Folding Pamphlet, a piece that was "repatriated" from abroad, sold for $8.62 million at Beijing Hanhai Art Auction Corp. in 2004 -- a record for this category of Chinese paintings.
The shift of the Asian art world to the East could accelerate if China is successful in curbing the trade of its antiques in the U.S. The Chinese government has petitioned the U.S. State Department to halt imports of articles more than 95 years old, under the provisions of a United Nations convention on trade in cultural goods. If the U.S. government agrees, "it will mean that the Chinese art market [in New York] will be over," says Melissa Chui, museum director of New York's Asia Society. The move by Hong Kong dealers to launch their own Asia Week is "pre-empting what a lot of people think will eventually happen."
Corrections & Amplifications:
Christie's New York auction of contemporary Indian art takes place March 30. This article about a shift in collectors' interest to Asia incorrectly said the auction would occur March 31.
中国古董交易重镇移师香港
亚洲艺术品交易市场的重心正在向东转移。
今年的纽约Asia Week展览周二已拉开帷幕。数年来，这个展览吸引了不少衣著光鲜考究的收藏家和大名鼎鼎的经销商。但是现在，有越来越多的中国大陆人具备了成为收藏家所需要的财富和鉴赏能力。在这股潮流推动下，香港艺术品经销商在他们自己的城市也创立了一个同类艺术节，今年5月，艺术节将举办两场展会。
住在香港的中国古典家俱经销商Andi Hei说，中国家俱市场在西方的发展已经开始放慢，而到他店里来的大陆人却越来越多了。他参加Asia Week已经有十多个年头，但今年他不打算再向展会送展品了。
眼下他正在为参加香港两个新展会之一──国际古玩及艺术品博览会(International Asian Antique & Art Fair)──忙碌著。这次展会吸引了十多家当地和国际经销商，其中包括英国的罗伯特?豪(Robert Hall)和法比奥?罗西(Fabio Rossi)以及巴黎的克里斯汀?戴迪(Christian Deydier)。
罗西说，远东地区是一个正在发展、壮大的市场。他说去年他与代表中国大陆客户的经销商做了好几单大买卖，卖品中包括蒙古和西藏的铜器。他还说，他不会坐等这些买家找上门去，他要到中国来找他们。
另一场艺术展的名字跟Hei要参加的那个非常相似，叫亚洲国际艺术及古董展(Asia International Arts & Antiques Fair)。目前已有超过三十家当地经销商申请参展。这两个展会预定展出时间与佳士得(Christie) 5月28-31日春季拍卖会的时间不谋而合。
全球艺术品市场的这一变化正在对纽约Asia Week展会产生分流效应。“Asia Week”这个名字的由来要追溯到1996年，当时有两个亚洲艺术展不约而同地将开幕时间定在佳士得和苏富比(Sotheby)在纽约举行的中国、印度和东南亚艺术品拍卖会期间。当年的展会吸引了很多买家，许多艺术品商店开始在每年的同一时间举办自己的展示会。每年一度的盛会通常能吸引到大约140位参展商，2005年的拍卖会拍出了5,800万美元的藏品。
中国古典艺术品仍是Asia Week的宠儿，但现在组织者也开始推出更多的亚洲当代艺术品和伊斯兰艺术品。纽约主要艺术展会之一International Asia Art Fair就将其展出范围扩大了当代亚洲艺术品以及非洲及大洋洲的作品。
由于一些中国艺术品经销商不再参展，纽约展会的组织者开始向纽约Tambaran Gallery和Donald Morris Gallery等非洲艺术品展览机构及Sundaram Tagore Gallery等当代艺术品经销商开放场地。Sundaram Tagore主要经营印度艺术家的新作品。
与此同时，Arts of Pacific Asia Show将继续展出传统中国作品，不过，今年参会的伊斯兰艺术品经销商会更多了。展会组织者比尔?凯斯基(Bill Caskey)说，近年来中东政局多有动荡，人们自然希望在他们的藏品中增加与伊斯兰有关的内容，并希望能对伊斯兰文化有更多的了解。
佳士得和苏富比为他们的纽约展会推出了亚洲当代艺术品和印度艺术品两个单独的类别。苏富比预计这些作品将为其带来600万美元-800万美元的收入，而整个Asia Week期间它将有3,100万美元-4,300万美元的进项。
佳士得则预计其166件（套）当代印度艺术品能拍得900万美元。它的这次专场据信将成为国际拍卖行迄今为止举办过的最大规模且拍品最多的印度作品展卖。佳士得预计这次Asia Week能为其带来2,900万美元-4,000万美元收入。
佳士得2000年在纽约停止拍卖中国画，原因是它难以为纽约和香港两地的市场组织到充足的拍品。佳士得在纽约的中国古董拍卖总额从2001年的2,420万美元增加到2005年的2,840万美元，但同一期间在香港的拍卖额却是成倍增长，去年达到了5,950万美元。
同样，苏富比在纽约的中国作品拍卖额在稳步增加，去年达到2,950万美元，而在香港市场更是突飞猛进，2005年的拍卖额从2001年的1,850万美元增加到9,430万美元。
与此同时，西方的拍卖行会见到越来越多的来自中国同行的竞争。据中国拍卖行业协会(China Association of Auctioneers)会长张延华说，去年，中国大陆的艺术品拍卖额达到了11亿美元，而1999年时还不到5,000万美元。（这项数字包括包括现、当代绘画作品，但佳士得和苏富比的数字里不包括。）
中国大陆拍卖行的拍卖价也开始创出世界记录。2004年，北京瀚海艺术品拍卖公司为流失海外的陆俨少《杜甫诗意百开册页》拍出了862万美元的天价，是同类中国画中的最高记录。
如果中国在打击美国境内中国艺术品交易活动方面取得更多进展，那么，亚洲艺术品交易的东进还有可能加速。中国政府要求美国国务院根据联合国有关艺术品贸易的公约，考虑停止进口历史超过95年的艺术品。
纽约亚洲协会(Asia Society)博物馆馆长Melissa Chiu说，如果美国政府接受这一要求，那将意味著（美国的）中国艺术品市场将消失。香港经销商推出自己的Asia Week的做法就是一种针对大家预料终将发生的情况而采取的“先下手为强”的举
