Only the Strong

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A new era has dawned in the art market in which financial turmoil may have some beneficial, if unforeseen, consequences. True collectors, along with dealers driven as much by their passion for art as by their need to make a living, now call the shots. Amateurs who were loaded with money freshly made in Wall Street, which they tossed at art for fun, have virtually retreated from the auction arena.

The first three days of the New York Asian Art Week in September were enough to reveal how radically buying patterns have been transformed. They also indicated that, henceforth, retribution will be swift and severe whenever estimates reflect a profit-minded consignor’s ambitions as much as the specialist’s considered opinion.

Chinese art was the perfect field for such a demonstration. Supplies are more abundant than in any other area, pieces of top-level museum quality have not yet deserted the auction scene and most importantly, Chinese art probably has the most diverse constituencies in the entire market. Sophisticated European and American collectors of long standing attend or view every auction. Chinese collectors based in Taiwan, Hong Kong or North America, who are perhaps more discerning, have very different aesthetic criteria. Finally, a new generation of avid buyers from mainland China has emerged in the past two years— a few are learning at lightning speed, but most demonstrate little concern for quality.

On September 16, Sotheby’s held a mammoth sale that began with snuff bottles and went on to sundry works ranging from ancient bronze vessels to hosts of jades. The result was illuminating, but not uniformly encouraging for Sotheby’s. Objects afflicted with overstated characterizations and pie-in-the-sky estimates dropped dead in droves, while a much smaller number of works that collectors saw as highly desirable did very well.

The Walter and Mona Lutz Bamboo Collection, as Sotheby’s solemnly called a haphazard assemblage of—indeed—bamboo pieces, may have been amassed a long time ago, which is always a boosting factor at auction, but it hardly spoke for the collectors’ sense of discrimination. Two cylindrical scroll cases that Sotheby’s vaguely assigned to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) were unlikely to go further back than the late 19th century and hardly warranted their ambitious $6,000 to $8,000 estimate. They remained unsold. By contrast, a brush pot engraved in 1744 with a traditional scene in a mountainous setting and columns of calligraphy signed by the artist ended up at $37,500.

Many jades of ill-determined age or no perceptible quality were doomed in the current climate. At one point, 12 of them crashed unsold in a row.

Had the auctioneer not been at liberty to let the star lot reproduced on the catalogue cover go for far below the low estimate, the wooden bodhisattva carved in the 15th century would have failed to find a taker. The hugely exaggerated estimate was $1.4 million to $1.6 million. The sculpture sold for $1.2 million, sale charge included—still a good price for what it was.

Apparently, money was not in short supply. This fact was confirmed by the performance of the next lot, a set of four superbly carved zitan-wood chairs dating from the early 18th century. They climbed to $332,500, far above the high estimate of $120,000 to $180,000. More interesting, a zitan-wood reclining armchair that was given an “18th/19th century” date, a telltale sign that Sotheby’s specialists thought it was quite late, still brought $230,500. The enormous price, more than double the high estimate, was essentially due to the elegant design, no matter its age.

On September 17, Christie’s, which had a larger and better sale, mapped out the new Chinese market in far greater detail. A heartening revelation came as the morning session opened with snuff bottles: objects from a genuinely superb private collection will still sell marvelously well, the unfavorable economic circumstances notwithstanding.