Is the retreat by mainland Chinese buyers to be blamed for a 32 per cent drop in total sales at Christie’s spring auctions in Hong Kong, which concluded on May 30?

No, says the auction house’s Asian chairman. It’s the sellers. The reserve prices for some items were set too high on the vendors’ insistence, says François Curiel, President of Christie’s Asia. This may well have been the case for Wednesday’s sale of imperial Chinese ceramics and works of art, where over a third of the lots were left unsold. Continue reading »

Christie’s, the auction house, sold less in this year’s autumn sales in Hong Kong than it did last year, the first year-on-year decline since 2008 and evidence that Asian demand for art is finally cooling.

Having been clobbered in 2009, auction houses in the city – both large and small alike – are hoping to weather any coming storm by looking to both new buyers, and new types of art.
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