Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The vase went for 83 Million dollars. But it’s unpaid. The auction houses have reported great numbers for objects of late. Especially with Chinese buyers, the art market in Asia exploded in 2010 and 2011. Yet all of the great numbers weren’t real. A Chinese scroll sold sold for 22 million Euros which is higher in US dollars, but that too is unpaid. These headline items made huge news, but months and months later, you don’t hear that the items never changed hands and will most likely go back to auction and be sold for much less. (SF Gate – Auctions)
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The horizon seems to keep growing. It was a matter of time until an article in the NY Times would mention China and Art Collectors and billionaires in the same article. Of course, rich buy rich things. In the later 80s, Japanese businesses were purchasing landmarks in the US. Many of us have forgotten that it led to paranoia including car bashings, movies like 16 Candles and Gung Ho, and ultimately the murderous beating of Vincent Chin. Yet Chinese businessmen, thus far, aren’t buying buildings, they’re buying US currency which seems to be devaluing daily, oil fields, and now great art. It’s inspiring for the richer Chinese to purchase Chinese art, especially the contemporary works by the many who top auction houses like Yue Minjun since that’s the work by their peers who grew up in the same periods of dictatorship then recovery and remembrance. Yet now it’s works by the “western masters” like Picasso and even Warhol. (NY Times – Chinese Art Collecting)
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