Strong Results Indicate Chinese Art Market Has Moved Beyond "Period Of Recovery" To One Of Growing Demand And Prices#
Earlier this month, Jing Daily covered the Christie's Spring Auctions in Hong Kong, which we described as a "buyer's frenzy" powered by mainland Chinese collectors. With works by blue-chip contemporary Chinese artists like Zeng Fanzhi, Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang proving popular with domestic buyers, we noted that the Chinese art market appears to have recovered from the dip we saw last year in the wake of the global economic crisis. This week, a new report by ArtTactic finds that the Chinese art market hasn't only largely recovered from its post-crisis dip, it's starting to experience strong pick-up in demand and growth is only accelerating.
Highlights from the new ArtTactic analysis of the Christie’s Asian Contemporary and Chinese 20th Century sales:
1.) The overall contemporary Chinese volume in 2010 might come close to the 2007 level, the second highest achieved for contemporary Chinese art.
2.) With a sale total of HK$303 million/US$39 million (including buyer’s premium), the Evening Sale of Asian Contemporary Art and Chinese 20th Century Art on May 29th, 2010 achieved three times its pre-sale estimate and was the first white glove auction for any Evening Sale in Asia.
3.)
Total volume of Chinese Contemporary Art sales ($15,634,990) was more than double that of both Spring 2009 ($7,587,710) Autumn 2009 ($7,134,920).#
4.) Christie's exceeded Sotheby's total this season by 8%.
5.) The ArtTactic Indicator has been slowly increasing since reaching an all-time low in autumn 2008. The current Indicator stands at 51, up 16% from the Christie’s Hong Kong autumn sales 2009.
6.) Zeng Fanzhi and Zhang Xiaogang accounted for 5 out of the top 10 lots, with a combined value of $4,615,000.
7.)
There is a new group of internationally renowned contemporary Chinese artists that are generating strong auction interest, such as Cai Guoqiang and Ai Weiwei.#
For more information on current trends in the Chinese contemporary art market, be sure to give ArtTactic's new podcast a listen.