Overvalued/Undervalued: Asia Week at Sotheby's

Chinese Contemporary Art: Overvalued?
[continued from previous slide] With a dearth of major Asian examples available in the U.S., some believe that galleries are stoking the market. “What is unfortunate is that everyone seems to perceive the auction houses as convenient shortcuts to ramping up an artist’s career,” says Maggio, who has sold works to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Seattle Museum of Art, among others. “Rather than building a career over years, and waiting for public affirmation by, for example, regular inclusion in international group shows and/or a first solo exhibit at an internationally recognized museum, artists and galleries worldwide seem to be engaged in a race to the auction block.”

An example of revving up an artist’s career could be this oil painting by Liu Ye, emblazoned on the back cover of the catalogue for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Asia sale. The artist has achieved seven-figure prices in Hong Kong sales, but in New York the numbers have been dramatically lower. Last October, the Chelsea gallery Sperone Westwater dedicated a show to the artist. “The price range was $18,000 for a very small format (picture) to $275,000 for one large-scale painting from 2000 (circa 180 x 320 cm),” writes Sperone director David Leiber in an e-mail. “Most works fell within the range of $30,000 dollars (40 x 30 inches) to $75,000 for two-meter-square size.”



Liu Ye, "The Little Mermaid" (2004). Est. $1,000,000 to 1,500,000. Lot 8, Contemporary Art Asia: China, Korea, Japan, Sept. 20

Courtesy Sotheby's