Art auctions are a relatively new phenomenon in Malaysia. Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers started the ball rolling in 2009, and since then in a short span of 4 years, KL Lifestyle, Masterpiece, and the Edge have joined the party. As a collector, I am enjoying this new development in Malaysian arts tremendously. It is great fun watching the auction houses trying to outdo each other. In this regard -special mention must be given to the Edge auction last weekend for serving champagne and a bountiful brunch at their auction. Hopefully, the other auction houses will follow suit Henry Butcher has also announced that they will be having an auction of Modernist Art on the very same day as KL Lifestyle during the Art Expo (22nd September) – is this a direct challenge to them? - is there room on the mountain for two (or more) hungry tigers? Whilst I am all for more competition amongst the auction houses, I am also concerned about the long term impact of treating art primarily as an investment/market. I overheard one art auctioneer tell his potential client, a story about how one of his clients bought a painting for RM40,000 at one auction, and now it is worth RM100,000 (because a similar piece was recently auctioned for that price). Good luck to this “art investor”. All I can say is that this is like the passing the parcel game, just make sure you are not left holding the parcel! My concern is that the Malaysian art “market” is not deep enough – there aren’t enough serious collectors, people are chasing “names” to buy, art knowledge is limited, etc. Some people are going to get burnt. I fear what may happen would be like the nyonya ware auction craze some time ago. In case you don’t know what I am referring to, some time back, Sothebys and Christies started a nyonya ware auction craze – some pieces were auctioned for very high prices, and every man and his dog with a nyonya ware in their grandma’s cupboard got into the game. It went on for a few years before the market fizzled out – there simply weren’t enough people buying nyonya ware at such high prices (and there was a lot of supply, after all nyonya ware is “daily use” ware). Well, we will see, meanwhile, I am enjoying the auctions – and the champagne
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 08:09:59 +0000
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