Trump Administration Proposed Tariffs on Chinese Art & Proposed Extension of Existing MOU.

The importing of Chinese art from China has been regulated since 2009 by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that is set to be renewed soon, through 2024. It is my opinion, and that of many other experts and commercial & non-profit institutions in the U.S., that this ban is not appropriate. The ban covers virtually all items through the Tang Dynasty and wall decoration and monumental sculpture more than 250 years old.
See the discussion on why this MOU should not be renewed posted by Cultural Property News here.

In addition, "ordinarily, there are no customs duties on art or antiques. It is considered in the public interest to bring art and literature to the U.S., so in the past, no duties were imposed on foreign art or books. The Trump administration is changing that, at least for art and antiques from China. This is one of the more bizarre stories in the tariff saga, since a tariff on antiques will please the Chinese government and reinforce its global dominance and monopoly on Chinese art. Artworks, antiques, and historical and archaeological collections are included in the Trump administration’s proposed 10% retaliatory tariff on an additional $200 billion of China imports....it is clear that the proposed tariff on Chinese art only punishes U.S. collectors, dealers, and art museums – not the Chinese, who requested import restrictions on art and antiques up to 1912 in the first place!" (quoted from Cultural Property News July 19, 2018).
The article includes a link on how individuals can comment on these proposed tariffs, which must be received by August 17, 2018.

Rare Chinese Porcelain Still of Interest to Collectors

The Art Daily online art news blog reported this morning that a new record has just been set for the price of a Chinese porcelain at auction. The piece in question is a rare Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) Ru guanyu ware brush washer measuring only 13 cm in diameter. Bidding started at around USD $10.2 million and the winning bid was USD $37.7 million.

Top Chinese Painters in 2016

Artprice market report has just published a listing of the top Chinese painting sales for 2016.
Chinese Painting Sales - 2016
The article notes -

The new records in modern and contemporary art confirm the trend which began recently, notably with the new record reached by ZHANG Daqian (1899-1983), the Chinese Picasso… The sale of Zhang Daqian’s works generated more than $300 million in 2016, although the market has quietened down compared to 2014 when his works raised more than $500m in one year.

TOP CHINESE AUCTION HOUSES 2016

The Chinese art market is dominated by sales at auction houses within Mainland China, in Hong Kong, or in Taiwan. There are so many auction houses these days that it is hard for the public to know which ones are the larger and more important ones. I have complied the list below, based on data culled from several sources include Artnet, Artprice, Artron, and Blouin. Note that this list OMITS the big three Western auction houses that have sales in China: Christie's (HK & Shanghai), Sotheby's (HK & Beijing), and Bonhams (HK).

Beijing ChengXuan Auctions Co., Ltd.
北京诚轩拍卖有限公司
Beijing

Beijing Council International Auction Co.,
Ltd. 北京匡时国际拍卖有限公司
Beijing

Beijing Huachen Auctions Co., Ltd.
北京华辰拍卖有限公司
Beijing

China Guardian Auctions Co., Ltd.
中国嘉德国际拍卖有限公司
Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo,
New York, Vancouver

Duo Yun Xuan Auctions Co., Ltd.
朵雲軒拍賣會
Shanghai

Beijing Hanhai Auction Co., Ltd.
北京翰海拍賣
Beijing

Hosane Auction Co. Ltd.
Shanghai

Poly Auction (Hong Kong)
香港保利
Hong Kong

Poly International Auction Co., Ltd.
北京保利
Beijing

Ravenel International Art Group
羅芙奧藝術集團
Taipei, Taiwan; Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai, China

Rong Bao Zhai
榮寶齋
Jinan

Rong Bao Zhai (Shanghai) Auction Co., Ltd.
榮寶齋
Shanghai

Sungari International Auction
中貿聖佳國際拍賣
Beijing

United Asian Auctioneers
Hong Kong

XiLing YinShe Auction Co. Ltd.
西冷印社拍賣
Hangzhou, Beijing

Zhong Cheng Auction Co., Ltd.
中誠國際拍賣
Taipei

Why Provenance Matters

I am often asked to appraise art people have bought in the past 10-20 years. These items include objects acquired impulsively during casual trips to Asia, from estate sales, or even from thrift stores, all for low prices, or occasionally purchased from non-specialist dealers or those catering to decorators. Many people think they are getting good buys. Most will be disappointed with my conclusions. It is always imperative when building a serious collection to study the type of art you are interested in yourself, consider provenance (history of past ownership) when purchasing objects, and buy from reputable dealers or auction houses.

A recent high-priced sale of a British collection of Chinese antiquities assembled in the 1950s and '60s shows why this matters.

Moon Flask, 15th century

Classical Chinese Furniture Prices Skyrocketing

All 26 lots in Sotheby's London sale of Classical Chinese Furniture on November 12, 2015 sold, for a total of US$16,780,515, which was over 10 times above the pre-sale low estimate. This success followed the successful sale of Chinese furniture Sotheby's held in Hong Kong in October, which realized US$33.5 million, which was more than double the pre-sale estimate. 

Chinese Collector Buys Imperial Artwork for US $45 Million Dollars

Another record has been set in the Chinese art market. The Chinese collector Liu Yiqian bought a 600-year-old imperial embroidered silk artwork at a Christie’s sale on Wednesday for $348 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million dollars), setting a record for any Chinese work of art sold by an international auction house. This is the same collector that purchased the Ming Chenghua era "chicken cup" in April this year for US$36 million dollars. He bought both pieces for his Long Museum in Shanghai. The artwork purchased is a huge thangka made of silk embroidery, depicting Raktayamari, ‘The Red Killer of Death’, a devotional Buddhist deity. Made to order for the Ming dynasty Yongle Emperor, the thangka is the only one of its kind in private hands, according to Christie’s. The two other known examples are both kept in the Jokhang Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet.“It is a national treasure,” Mr. Liu, told The Wall Street Journal. “We need top art works for our museum.”

Another Chinese Art Auction Record Shattered with Tiny "Chicken Cup"

The Chinese art market can't seem to falter--the recent Sotheby's Hong Kong sale (April 8, 2014) set another milestone record price for Chinese porcelains--$36 million dollars for a miniscule porcelain "chicken cup" Read about this sale here.

St Louis Art Museum Loses Bidding on Chinese Art

An interesting article (in which I was quoted) about the sky-high Chinese art market.
The St. Louis Art Museum recently attempted to bid on a Yuan dynasty (14th century) porcelain dish at auction in New York. Not too surprising to me that they failed, alas. See the article here.

The Chinese Contemporary Art Market - According to Forbes

See the article : FIVE MYTHS ABOUT CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART

New NY Times Story about Beijing Poly Group Auctions

A fine article, An Art Power Rises in China, Posing Issue for Reform, on the Beijing Poly Group Corporation's auction house (December 16, 2013). Link to article
The article describes the company as a state-run conglomerate that began life selling weapons for the People’s Liberation Army. 

ARTICLE EXCERPTS OF NOTE:
There is no question, though, that Poly has not been as compliant as other houses with the industrywide effort to improve the accuracy of sales reporting….Unlike [China] Guardian and other houses, Poly refused for the past two years to allow the auction association to publish data on the individual works whose sales had not been paid for completely. On top of that, the auction association’s studies ultimately found that Poly is increasingly struggling with a nonpayment problem. In 2012, for example, the association found that, because of nonpayments, only 34 percent of the sales Poly reported for works valued at more than $1.6 million each were actually completed by May of the following year. By contrast, Guardian’s payment rate has improved, with 83 percent of sales completed last year, up from 53 percent….Auction houses account for an estimated 70 percent of the art sales in China, compared with roughly 50 percent in the United States, according to Arts Economics, a research company that studies the international market...Poly has its defenders, even among trade association officials seeking to clean up the market, and company officials say the study and critics are being unfair. “The government has a stricter policy on state-owned enterprises than on private enterprises,” said Zhao Xu, the executive director of the company. Either way, although Poly is just one of more than 350 Chinese art auction houses, its size and reach mean that no meaningful effort to address the irregularities can succeed without its participation. “In the Chinese art market,” said Nancy M. Murphy, an expert on Chinese art law and a lawyer at the Beijing firm Jincheng, Tongda & Neal, “Poly is the 800-pound gorilla in the room.”

More on the World of Chinese Fakes

 Yet another fine NY Times article:
GAMING CHINA'S ART MARKET WITH EXPERT FORGERIES

Chinese Auction World Revealed

Another great NY Times article on the perils of the Chinese art market--this one designed for the web with very effective interactive components.

And a commentary on it that suggests the market is even more broken than the NY Times reported.China's Broken Art Market (Reuters blog by Felix Salmon)

The Poly Group--China's State-owned Auction Giant

More news on the booming Chinese auction market, focusing on the state-owned Poly Group.

SOTHEBY'S FALL 2013 HK SALES BREAK RECORDS YET AGAIN

Yet another great sale year for Chinese art, both old and new:
Bloomberg's article has the details.

Yongle-period gilt-bronze figure of a seated Buddha. Sold for US$30.5 million

Ming,  Chenghua-era “Palace” Bowl. Sold for US$18.2 million

 "The Last Supper" (2001) by contemporary painter Zeng Fanzhi. Sold for US$23.3 million, a new record for a Chinese contemporary artist at auction.

Why Hong Kong Auction Houses Are Thriving

An interesting NY Times article October 3, 2013: Niche Auction Houses Thrive in Hong Kong

YET ANOTHER CHINESE ART SCAM REVEALED

This insightful article from Forbes sums up the situation at China's auction houses well, with special mention of the largest auction house, Poly Auctions. CHINA'S $13 BILLION DOLLAR ART FRAUD -- AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU.

Chinese Art Frauds Continue

I have not posted anything on the Chinese art market for awhile but now I feel compelled to warn readers of this blog about how cunningly potential buyers in the Chinese art market get deceived. Not only are pieces skillfully being copied, so are their associated documents, which is nothing new, but a recent case in point makes this abundantly clear. Boston Globe story: Vase that drew $1.7m bid also drawing federal scrutiny

Supposed Qianlong gourd vase

Base when sold at Altair for $1.7 million

Base when sold at Jackson's for $3840

Chinese Contemporary Art Market Slips

According to an Oct. 9, 2012 Art Radar Asia article, "Ashen Faces, groans as Chinese art bombs -- Sotheby's Autumn 2012 Contemporary Asian Art auction," contemporary Chinese art sales have seriously slumped while the market remains strong for premodern Chinese arts. The article also  references several recent article elsewhere about the frauds rampant at Chinese art auctions in Mainland China and the increasing number of fakes of contemporary Chinese arts.

See the following articles on related topics:
Forbes article from 8/13/2012, "China's $13 Billion Art Fraud."
The Art Newspaper article from 7/18/2012, "Chinese art funds on risky road to maturity."

Alledged Undervaluing of Contemporary Chinese Art Imported to China

On July 16, 2012, the NY Times reported that a German art handler and a Chinese associate were detained on charges that they undervalued imported art to avoid customs duties. The article states that "[t]he detentions have put a spotlight on the mercurial Chinese legal system and raised questions among collectors and industry executives about the potential pitfalls of China’s fast-growing art and antiques market, which last year surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest, according to the European Fine Art Foundation. The crackdown, industry professionals have warned, could dissuade Chinese collectors from bringing home art purchased abroad." The article then adds that "legal experts said that art handling firms simply work with the values provided by their clients, but that Chinese law is murky on whether individuals employed by shipping companies can be held liable for undervaluing a work...in China imported art is often levied with duties that can reach 35 percent of an object’s value. Many industry veterans complain of a customs process that is notoriously onerous....and "[a] number of art professionals, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of drawing unwanted attention from the authorities, have suggested that the government may simply be trying to remove the competition as it prepares to enter the lucrative art-handling business. Read the full article HERE.