(1888PressRelease)
April 18, 2009 - The Malaise of the global financial crisis, which has wiped out trillions in the value of stock markets around the world and created widespread wealth erosion among the rich over the past months, is now apparently affecting the thriving art and fine wine markets, whose well-heeled patrons have started tightening their belts in recent times in the face of uncertainties.
Stephen Yang, an analyst with Seedorf Luxman & Partners in Singapore, said “Recent auctions of Asian art in Singapore and Hong Kong felt the full brunt of the credit crunch, when auction houses Borobudur, Larasati and Sotheby’s all failed to reach their target estimates after many art pieces, especially those of Chinese contemporary, were left unsold as buyers stayed away in the wake of the global crisis.”
The Sotheby’s Hong Kong art auction early this month, which set the bearish tone for the rest of the Asian art auctions that followed, saw no takers even for the much sought-after artworks of leading Chinese contemporary artist Zeng Fanzhi, whose painting, Mask Series 1996 No 6, hit the jackpot in May after it was sold for a record of HK$75.4 million ($9.72 million) at a Christie’s auction.
“To be fair, Sotheby’s sold art during a week when nobody in any part of the world wanted to buy anything because the value of assets was absolutely under attack,” a sympathetic Stephen yang said “But, yes, I feel that we are clearly going into an environment where people are starting to feel cautious about art purchases.”
“In the current economic climate, emerging art segments like Chinese contemporary, which has recently experienced the biggest jumps in value in recent years, are poised to experience the greatest price correction,” the Seedorf Luxman & Partners CEO said. Yang finished his statement by saying“We saw this same spike in value and then dramatic correction in the late 1980s and early 1990s for many of the newly-minted art stars for that era and I expect to see the art market history repeating itself.”
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