| Bloomberg  A ring with a pink diamond the size of a chickpea will be the smallest and most-expensive item offered at a Hong Kong auction of paintings, antiques and gems that may tally HK$1 billion ($129 million).
The 5-carat, so-called fancy-vivid stone set by London- based jeweler Graff Diamonds and given the second-highest rating of potentially flawless is estimated to make as much as HK$55 million, said Christie’s International. The 2,000-lot, five-day sale starts tomorrow at the harbor-front convention center, with the diamond selling on Dec. 1.
Christie’s auction comes as a sagging dollar drives some investors to convert currencies into gold and other assets. Growth is accelerating in the largest Asian economies, such as China, leading the benchmark MSCI Asia Pacific stock index 66 percent higher this year and generating wealth that spurs art purchases. Art prices track stock- and currency-market performance, according to the Artprice Global Index, which monitors sales of fine paintings and sculptures.
“Collectors are willing to pay top prices for the best but don’t expect to see rash purchases,” said Eric Huang, a Taipei- based art buyer and dealer who paid HK$15.8 million for an oil painting by Zao Wou-ki at Sotheby’s October sale in Hong Kong.
Other top items at Christie’s include a 1950s blue, white and pink oil painting of potted flowers by the late Chinese master Sanyu that may sell for HK$12 million, and an octagonal lacquer box inlaid with mother-of-pearls from the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) estimated at HK$20 million, the company said.
Evening Expectations
Huang, 28, said he expects Christie’s evening art sale of 40 works, including Sanyu’s painting, to “do exceptionally well for their fine quality.” The evening sale is the most glamorous part of an auction and is the host’s platform for setting an industry trend. Christie’s held Hong Kong’s first such event in 2008, followed by rival Sotheby’s, which has suspended them. Rhonda Yung, Sotheby’s Hong Kong spokeswoman, said the halt “isn’t permanent,” without saying when they might resume.
“It’s our strategy to maintain an evening sale here,” Andrew Foster, Christie’s Asia president, said in an interview. The event helps set the tone for buying and selling of top Asian paintings, including contemporary Chinese art, he said. Prices of contemporary Chinese paintings by artists such as Zhang Xiaogang and Yue Minjun have fallen more than half at auction from their peak in 2007 and 2008.
While this category of art had dominated previous evening sales in Hong Kong, it will account for just a third of lots at Christie’s Nov. 29 event. The sale will be led by Zeng Fanzhi’s 1994, 70 5/8 inch-by-78 3/8 inch oil painting, “Untitled (Hospital Series),” expected to fetch as much as HK$12 million.
Red Guards
A Zeng painting of red guards fetched an Asian contemporary art record of HK$75.4 million in May 2008, at the last major Hong Kong auction before the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapse in September of that year. Works by masters such as Sanyu, Zao Wou-ki (1920- ) and Chu Teh-Chun (1920- ) will account for the remaining lots at the evening sale.
Anchoring the Chinese antiques part of the auction is a 13- inch-tall, blue-and-white ceramic vase from the Emperor Hongwu era (1368-1398) that resembles the one sold to Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn in May 2006 for HK$78.5 million; it may fetch more than HK$15 million, said Christie’s. A group of 37 antique lacquers being offered by collector K. T. Lee, including the octagonal box, may fetch a combined HK$80 million, Christie’s said.
“Christie’s selection of antiques is not bad at all,” said Wu Qun, a Beijing-based buyer who paid HK$23 million in April for a Xuande era (1426-1435) blue-and-white stem bowl with Tibetan script at Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction.
‘Imperial Plaything’
At this sale, Wu said he particularly likes a landscape ink-and-color scroll by Qian Weicheng bearing Emperor Qianlong’s red seal marks. The lot, which Wu called “an imperial plaything,” has a top price of HK$28 million.
Wu said the Chinese interest in fine antiques is growing and predicts mainland buyers will start paying “hundreds of millions of yuan” for the best pieces in the coming years. American collectors remain the strongest buyers of top-end Chinese antiques, although the mainlanders are catching up.
At Sotheby’s October auction in Hong Kong, Chinese buyers won most of the top antique lots, including a Qing Dynasty imperial throne with carved dragons for $11 million.
Foster said prices of Chinese art have “plenty of room” to grow compared with Western art, and he expects Hong Kong to overtake London as Christie’s second-biggest market in a decade, behind only New York. Christie’s and Sotheby’s hold biannual art auctions in Hong Kong that serve as Asia bellwethers.
Wine Sales
The region is also emerging as Christie’s best market for fine wines. Wines sold in Hong Kong by Christie’s average HK$150,000 per lot, the highest among auction houses in the city and between twice and three times more than at the company’s own London and New York sales, Christie’s said. Sotheby’s, Bonhams and Acker Merrall & Condit also hold major Hong Kong wine sales.
“Christie’s and Bonhams are definitely among the best in terms of giving proof of provenance for the wines they sell,” said George Tong, a Hong Kong toy-factory owner wine collector with a 5,000-bottle cellar.
Demand for first-growth Bordeaux dominates Christie’s Hong Kong auction. A highlight is a 1949 jeroboam of Lafite Rothschild that remained in single ownership through the decades; it may fetch HK$240,000. Another highlight tomorrow is a 78-bottle lot of 1999 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, including La Tache and Richebourg, expected to fetch as much as HK$1.5 million.
Estimates don’t include commission. The auction ends Dec. 2 with the watches sale.
To contact the writer on the story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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