The international art auction world has long been dominated by Sotheby’sand Christie’s,which have more than 500 years of history between them. Recent Hong Kong auctions have heralded the emergence of two new rivals – from China.
Poly International Auction, the third largest auction house by sales, held its first international auction in Hong Kong over the weekend. The Beijing-based subsidiary of a Chinese defence company said its two-day sale raised HK$520m ($67m). Top bids included a 20th-century painting of two Tibetan women by Chinese painter Zhang Daqian, which fetched HK$48.3m.
China Guardian, the fourth-largest auction house, last month held its first sale outside the mainland, in Hong Kong. Headed by Wang Yannan, daughter of former Chinese leader Zhao Ziyang, Guardian achieved $59m in sales, 2½ times higher than the pre-sale estimate, according to ArtTactic, an art market research company. Between them, Poly and Guardian have 26 years of history – a lot of it during a bull market for Chinese art which, according to estimates, recently catapulted China into first place as the world’s largest art market.