Week In Review: November 19-23, 2012

In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of November 19-23: Christie's HK Contemporary Asian Art Auctions (Nov. 24-25): Top Lots To Watch Following up last month’s Hong Kong autumn auctions by Sotheby’s and China Guardian — which pulled in respective totals of US$258 million and US$58.6 million – Christie’s is set to hold its HK autumn series from November 23-28. With local and mainland Chinese collectors proving far more discriminating in 2012, yet still showing a strong appetite for historical and quality pieces, expect to see the same selectively aggressive bidding at Christie’s that was seen at its competitors’ sales in October. IWC Promotes New Beijing Flagship With Sina Weibo Competition Fresh off its recent boutique opening at Pacific Place in Hong Kong, on November 22 Swiss luxury watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen opens its latest flagship at Beijing’s new Parkview Green mall — which opened last month with early tenants like illycaffe, Karen Millen and Ted Baker. Considering IWC currently has over 40 points of sale throughout China, the launch of a new store would otherwise be minor news, but it’s the way the brand is promoting the event that makes the grand opening noteworthy. Seeing Red In Burgundy: Is Wine Sinophobia Overblown? Though imported wine demand in Greater China continues to rise — sales increased 19 percent by volume and 42 percent in value to Hong Kong and 65 percent in volume and 39 percent in value to mainland China in the first seven months of the year — not all winemakers are eager to jump on the China bandwagon. In the wake of the Bordeaux boom and (muted) bust of 2010-2011, which saw prices for the likes of Château Lafite hit new highs owing to skyrocketing Chinese demand, some producers in Burgundy worry that too great an emphasis on the China market could ultimately hurt their prospects in traditional markets. (And hurt them as well if Chinese interest wanes and prices drop.) Report: European Luxury Handbags Dominate In China This week, the Digital Luxury Group (DLG) and the Luxury Society published the 2012 WorldHandbagReport, analyzing over 120 luxury handbag brands in 10 of the world’s top luxury markets, including Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States. In total, over 120 million individual online searches from the world’s top search engines were collected and examined to understand the factors currently impacting the luxury handbag industry the most. Christie's Contemporary HK Sale To Benefit From Global Auction Trends Coming in the wake of the recent record-setting $375 million contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s in New York, the upcoming Christie’s contemporary Asian art evening and day sales in Hong Kong should see strong bidding buoyed by a more optimistic buyer market, greater scarcity of top Chinese pieces, and the relatively lower prices for blue-chip Chinese and Asian art. Though few lots at the recent contemporary art auction in New York, with the exception of a Lichtenstein sculpture, went to Chinese bidders, this doesn’t mean the success of last week’s Sotheby’s sale will have no effect on China or on the prices for Chinese art.

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Week In Review: November 19-23, 2012