Art Advisors Nicolai And Michael Frahm Discuss Art Market Trends#
Following the successful second installment of the Ullens Collection auction series and Sotheby's Contemporary Asian Art auction in Hong Kong -- where blue-chip Chinese artists proved their allure among domestic and international collectors -- this week, art advisors Nicolai and Michael Frahm discuss with Bloomberg broader trends in the global art market, including the significant influence now wielded by China and its new collectors.
I think [China]'s making a huge difference in our industry, and if you just go back to five years ago, that was the first time a Chinese artist broke a million dollars at auction in New York, at Sotheby's, Zhang Xiaogang. He's since broken $10 million at auction in Hong Kong. If you go back to 1996, he was selling for less than $100,000.
I think you have to think of China as really a community and a country that was completely closed off for the contemporary art market, so really the birth of that contemporary art market began in 1979, but the actual art market as such for China, for the Chinese people really started in 2006. And right now we're really seeing Hong Kong making it in a big way with the auctions that are doing extremely well, not only in art, but look at fine wines, jewelry. So it's having a huge impact across the board, I think.