Who Pushed Up Auction Prices in China?

The two year long turmoil that has surrounded a single, legendary auction event has finally come to a close. In November of 2010, a Qing dynasty porcelain vase of the Qianlong era was auctioned for 51.6 million pounds (approximately 550 million RMB), but due to the fact that the buyer continually delayed payment, the item is back on the market. This time, when the bottle was sold by the English auction company Bonhams, it was sold in private for just half the price, at between 20 million to 25 million pounds (roughly 197 million to 247 million RMB). It has been pointed out that, even though the vase is exquisitely designed, it is far below the caliber of many masterpieces. Yet even the reduced price is considered enormous – more than twenty times the estimated value from two years ago – and far, far above the actual value of the item.

According to reports, the vase was purchased by someone from Asia, possibly Chinese. This background is fairly consistent with that of the buyer from two years ago. In reality, Chinese artifacts that were auctioned off at recent overseas auctions for astronomically high prices were likely bought by a Chinese bidder. This phenomenon has attracted international scrutiny.

The Rich Band Together to Retrieve “National Treasures”

Since the start of the new century, Chinese artworks have taken the international auction scene by storm, followed by an influx of Chinese bidders, as opposed to the situation before, where the audience was predominantly western. Most surprisingly, Chinese bidders can outbid European and American bidders by more than 30% in the same auction.

The memory of Yuanmingyuan animal head statues, being sold one after another for astronomical sums, is still fresh on the minds of many people: in 2000, a Yuanmingyuan tiger head statue sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong triggered many Chinese patriots to bid with reckless abandon, eventually bought out by a Chinese enterprise that pushed the price to HK$ 15.44 million; in 2007, a Yuanmingyuan horse head statue sold by Sotheby’s Hong Kong was claimed by Macao billionaire Stanley Ho for HK$ 69.1 million. In 2005, Doyle New York auctioned a Ming dynasty flat vase, starting at US$800,000. The item was eventually auctioned at US$5,831,500, setting the auction price record for Chinese porcelain at the time. The buyer was, in fact, a collector from Hong Kong. In 2011, an imperial jade seal was auctioned off in France for 12.4 million euros, setting a new world record price for items of its kind, and “Array”, the fourth scroll of the “Qian Long’s Grand Review” series of Qing dynasty imperial paintings, sold for 22.05 million euros, breaking the world record at the time for highest bid price on an Asian artwork sold in France. Both items were purchased by a Chinese client who wishes to remain anonymous.

Clairvoyant Estimation or Blind Pursuit?

It has been pointed out that China, with its 5000 year history of civilized culture, has nurtured countless dazzling treasures. Chinese art, especially ancient Chinese art, can compete with classical western art, regardless of whether historic, cultural, or artistic value is being compared. Its value has been vastly underestimated by the world for a long time, but the advent of this incredible rise in price illustrates a manifestation of the desire for these items to return to their rightful owners – a reasonable, appropriate, and noble endeavor. It is precisely this swell that represents the enhancement of both the strength of the country, and the ethnic status of its people.

In this regard, there are also a considerable number of people who hold a different opinion. An industry source told reporters that there is in fact a substantial amount of crazed, blind zeal that is responsible for Chinese buyers inflating the price of Chinese art. “Whenever some buyers see a Chinese artifact in an overseas auction, they spare no expense in obtaining it, believing that they are ‘rescuing’ it. This is, in reality, very foolish behavior. The prices of many auction items have been inflated as a result of what is believed to be ‘patriotism’. For example, the twelve Yuanmingyuan animal head statues are, based on their craftsmanship and detail, nothing special, but their political values far exceed their financial and artistic value. Another instance is the flat vase sold for the ridiculously high sum at the 2005 New York auction. It had what we in the antiques realm call a ‘fatal wound’ – the lip had suffered a large chip, which was then manually refilled, and both sides of the vase, as well as the bottom of the vase, showed very visible cracks - and was considered a ‘defective’ item.” The way he sees it, attempting to recover the millions of artifacts lost since the late Qing dynasty, using the same tactic of overbidding, is unrealistic. In fact, there is fear that this tactic can be turned against Chinese bidders, and has been the subject of much speculation and anxiety.