Artists Up in Arms Over Sotheby's Auction of Estella Collection

Zhang Xiao Gang Leng Lin on Pace Beijing Hong Kong Sales Prove Chinese Contemporary’s Potency 2007 an "Annus Mirabilis for the Art Market," Says Artprice Chinese Contemporary Art A Steadily Rising Market "Rationality" Returns at Chinese Auction Five-day Hong Kong Sale Totals $270 Million $315.9 Million Adds Up to Sotheby’s Best-Ever Sale

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Known as the Estella Collection, the grouping of works by some of China's best up-and-coming artists was first purchased by New York dealer Michael Goedhuis, who, according to the artists and curators, informed them that the collection was to be bought by a wealthy westerner with plans to donate some of it to a museum. After being sold to a group of investors, who in turn sold the works to Sotheby's, half of the Estella collection was instead sold at auction. The other half of the collection will hit the block at Sotheby's New York this fall.

The collection had already traveled through national museums in Israel and Denmark and is the subject of a book, China Onward, which includes an essay by contemporary Chinese art scholar Britta Erickson.

Both Sotheby's and Goedhuis acknowledged the unexpected change of plans for the collection's destination.