Oil Paintings Market News

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — A 1993 painting of Mao Zedong by China’s most-expensive contemporary artist Zeng Fanzhi may fetch about HK$30 million ($3.9 million) at a Hong Kong art sale next month, according to Christie’s International.

Zeng’s 70 3/4 inch-by-79 inch oil-on-canvas “Mao I: From the Masses, to the Masses” is the star lot of Christie’s Asian contemporary-art evening sale on Nov. 30, the most-glamorous part of its five-day Hong Kong auction of 2,500 lots of art, antique and gems that the company expected to fetch HK$1.75 billion. Results of evening sales typically serve as industry barometers.

“Mao I,” is the twin of a like-sized oil painting “Chairman Mao II,” also dated 1993, that fetched 2.17 million pounds ($3.8 million) at Phillips de Pury & Co.’s London auction on June 29. Christie’s spokeswoman Kate Malin said the painting has been “conservatively and reasonably priced” to sell.

“Obviously we have be smart about the estimates,” said Malin. “We have to observe market conditions and adjust our prices accordingly. That’s what we have done with this painting.”

Sales slowed conspicuously at Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction this month and at London’s Frieze Art Fair, a sign the art world is in the throes of a crisis that’s seized global financial markets since the Sept. 15 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

Price Promise

At Christie’s contemporary-art auction in London on Oct. 19, the company couldn’t sell three of six lots, including a Francis Bacon work, on which the company promised sellers a minimum price regardless of the outcome. Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale, Asia’s first major art auction since the crisis began, missed its target by half, with nearly 40 percent of paintings offered at its Asian contemporary-art auction unsold; most were top lots by star Chinese artists.

Sotheby’s said Chinese contemporary-art prices were leveling off after surging the past few years and that it was normal.

Malin said it’s hard to forecast the outcome of Christie’s Hong Kong five-day art auction, which starts on Nov. 29, since much would depend on the state of the financial markets then.

Christie’s expects the 32 lots it offers at its Nov. 30 contemporary-art evening sale in Hong Kong to fetch around HK$150 million. Other highlights include Fang Lijun’s oil-on-canvas “2001.7.31,” with a top estimate of HK$2 million and Indian artist T.V. Santhosh’s 2007 oil-on-canvas “Tracing an Ancient Error,” expected to fetch as much as HK$1.5 million.

Other highlights of Christie’s Asian contemporary-art sale are five paintings by top artists like Zhao Xiaogang and Tang Zhigang consigned by Hollywood director Oliver Stone that are expected to tally a combined HK$40 million.

At Christie’s Hong Kong auction in May, Zeng’s painting of masked Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution era set a Chinese contemporary-art record of HK$75.4 million.

“I’m 99.99 percent certain Zeng Fanzhi will have a place in Chinese contemporary-art history,” said Nicole Schoeni, who runs Hong Kong-based Schoeni Art Gallery Ltd., which sold “Chairman Mao II” in the 1990s. “So this painting Christie’s is offering is probably worth HK$30 million.”

Source: Bloomberg

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Zeng's Mao Zedong Painting May Fetch HK$30 Million in Hong Kong ©2010 Oil Paintings Market News