New Collectors In China And Other Developing Markets Target Clients For One East Larasati#
New Chinese Collectors have become the darlings of the art auction market in the wake of the global economic crisis, and more Asian auction houses have begun to actively court collectors throughout East and Southeast Asia as the auction markets in Hong Kong and mainland China have boomed.
Among these home-grown Asian auction houses, Ravenel from Taiwan (previously on Jing Daily), Borobudur from Indonesia and China's Poly and Guardian have emerged as some of the most profitable and fastest growing in the world. Now, looking to follow in the footsteps of these Asian auction houses, the ten-year-old Singaporean auction house Larasati has launched a new service designed for new Asian collectors who want to learn more about appreciating and collecting art.
As Reuters India points out today, the service, called One East Larasati, will offer a range of art services from art consulting and education to collection management and conservation to tap the huge potential in Asia. From Reuters:
"The Asian art market is recovering from the recession and about to enter a whole new growth cycle," said Daniel Komala, chief executive officer and founder of Larasati.
"To meet the demands of the market, which is not only growing in size but also in terms of sophistication, we have launched One East Asia to expand our service offering into investment and consultancy, expertise which the market needs to sustain growth."
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Under the One East Asia flagship, Komala will consolidate the resources, expertise and contacts built through Larasati in the past decade and pursue a wide range of art market options and services, and a larger customer base across Asia.
"Everything is being carried out within the umbrella of Christie's or Sotheby's but ... I want to make my clients become more well informed buyers," said Komala.
"You can't be a well-informed buyer by only coming to auctions, and you don't really want to go to university to brush up your knowledge."
This type of service is likely going to become increasingly common in Asia in coming years, and we can expect to see similar educational services being rolled out in China by domestic auction houses or arts organizations. Already in China there is a growing demand for arts "tutoring" services, which were a major topic of discussion last year at the Global Collecting Forum in Beijing and the Songzhuang Art Festival’s Conference of Collectors of Chinese Contemporary Art in Shanghai.