Word: auctions
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...tiny dots are almost invisible to the naked eye and each is imprinted with a unique number linking the artwork with its church. Meanwhile, Interpol recently proposed a scheme to insert identity chips into religious works, which would allow agents to track them if they ended up with auction houses or dealers...
...spending Chinese and Indian collectors, alongside other wealthy new players, from Russian oil barons to Middle Eastern magnates. They are united in what Jonathan Stone, Hong Kong-based business director of Asian art at Christie's, describes as a cultural fascination with China - an enchantment the auction houses hope to extend to the rest of Asia. "The globalization of the art market is greater than it ever has been," Stone says. Observes Malaysian lawyer, author and collector Karim Raslan: "Christie's and Sotheby's increasingly realize their niche is cross-selling globally, between, say, Europeans and Chinese, whereas auction houses...
...Even so, the new Asian auction houses must allay a couple of concerns. The first lies in the area of authentication. Some firms invest heavily in expertise - Bid & Hammer has Sotheby's former head of South Asian art on its staff, as well as a historian. But most of the new firms simply cannot match the seasoned in-house proficiency of Christie's or Sotheby's. Borobudur, for example, refuses to handle Chinese porcelains because, Andreas says, "we don't have the experts...
...real issue is how do you handle the auctions - do you put in as many works as possible, or are you more selective?" says Jasdeep Sandhu, owner of Singapore's Gajah Gallery. For art professionals, letting the market set an artist's worth is unsettling. "The reason is because if an artist crashes at auction, people lose confidence in the artist and art," Sandhu explains...
...other words, the new auction houses face a tough call: they must act with restraint at a time when the Asian art market is at its most inviting. They need, in fact, to learn the haughty connoisseurship of Sotheby's and Christie's. And then, who knows? Maybe one day we'll see the likes of John Andreas in a bespoke suit after...