ARTFIXdaily News Feed - Breaking News from the Art World

Sneak Peak: Chinese export on view at TEFAF

Luxist / March 14th, 2010

For serious collectors of Chinese export porcelain, TEFAF, the Maastricht art fair going on now through March 21, has some choice examples for sale. Highlights offered by Cohen & Cohen Gallery (Booth 246) include a striking pair of three foot tall Famille Rose Baluster vases and covers that ...

Imperial Chinese vase soars to €110,000 at Irish country auction

Daily Mail / March 4th, 2010

A Chinese vase sold for 1,000 times its estimate of £130 at Sheppards Irish Auction House. The stunned audience saw the piece hammered down for a staggering €110,000 (£99,990) after an intense bidding war between a dealer and collector who had flown in for the sale. The 12-inch blue and white ...

TEFAF aggregates the world's best art for sale

Hello Magazine / February 25th, 2010

Over 30,000 works of art, from antiquities to modern paintings, much of it desirable for pedigree, rarity, and beauty, will descend upon the Dutch town of Maastricht from March 12 to 21. With 263 top-tier exhibitors bringing the best of their blue-chip art, plus special sections for design, works ...

$32 million Bloch collection of snuff bottles on the block

Bloomberg / February 24th, 2010

Bonhams expects to raise at least 20 million pounds ($32 million) in a series of auctions featuring antique Chinese snuff bottles. The late Hong Kong-based businessman, George Bloch, and his wife Mary, known as astute collectors, accumulated 1,720 Qing Dynasty bottles over the course of twenty ...

In China, Sotheby's to pursue legal action for non-payments

Luxist / February 10th, 2010

Sotheby's is suing two Chinese buyers for $270,300 because they never paid the tabs they bid up. According to Sotheby's, one winning bidder of a Qing Dynasty cloisonné censer and cover didn't pony up the cash required, "despite repeated requests and demands."  With Hong Kong now the ...

Market Upswing: Sotheby's reports third highest sales in Hong Kong

Reuters / October 8th, 2009

HONG KONG - Sotheby's made a higher-than-expected $168 million or so in total sales for its autumn Asian auctions in Hong Kong. The sales tally for the array of Chinese antiques and paintings, Asian contemporary art, wine, jewelry and watches was 88 percent higher than its spring sales tally, ...

Asian Art Week: New Chinese buyers, import restrictions jiggle the market

Wall Street Journal / September 24th, 2009

NEW YORK - Asian Art Week, amid the most entrenched art-market recession in nearly two decades, saw many auction prices go through the roof while other sales languished with 40% unsold lots. Together, Christie's and Sotheby's raised about $56 million, high above expectations. Works from the ...

Collecting Fine China: Antiquities market has a new dynamic

Forbes / September 10th, 2009

The market for ancient Chinese works of art--terra-cotta horses, ceramic vessels, bronzes, jades, and Buddha statues that predate the Tang dynasty (a.d. 618 to 907)--is largely undervalued, and there's still a plentiful supply, from rarities with significant provenance to pieces that simply make ...

Digitized Culture: High-tech copies preserve original art, architecture

asahi / September 8th, 2009

TOKYO - The protection of cultural properties is going digital, with Buddhist sculptures, old paintings and World Heritage sites like Beijing's Forbidden City being preserved as digital images and in video. The move is a result of not just progress in image processing technology but of awareness ...