Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer for Sotheby's in Asia
© AFP/File Woody WuHONG KONG (AFP) - Kevin Ching says one of his aims as the newly-appointed chairman of Sotheby's in Asia is to see the first Asian bid for a European Impressionist piece.
And he thinks he may already have some potential buyers.
"I have been talking to some collectors in the past few months -- a few of them expressed an interest," Ching explains on the sidelines of the auction house's Hong Kong spring sale.
"I think they take satisfaction from being involved in auctions -- and if you are involved in the international market, the satisfaction levels are higher," he adds.
Chinese buyers have dominated Sotheby's four-day sale of Asian art, historical artifacts, watches and jewellery this week.
For the first time, an entire collection -- from the private collection of a Parisian connoisseur of Chinese art -- was sold to Chinese buyers Sunday, for more than 128 million dollars.
The day before, a new record was set for a Chinese painting sold at auction when a rare politically-themed oil by Xu Beihong, "Put Down that Whip", went under the hammer for 72 million dollars.
The sales illustrate the sudden surge of worldwide interest in Asian art. Sotheby's alone has seen sales at its annual Asian art auctions soar from 400 million Hong Kong dollars in 2000 to 2 billion dollars in 2006.
Such is the growing worldwide interest in Asian art that the auction house will add Paris as a sales venue for the region's treasures, in addition to New York, London and Hong Kong .
At the heart of this growth is Hong Kong, which has overtaken Tokyo as the heart of the region's art market and accounts for 70 percent of all Asian art sales at Sotheby's.
Kevin Ching, Chief Executive Officer for Sotheby's in Asia
© AFP/File Woody WuChing takes over from Henry Howard-Sneyd, who built up the company's regional footprint and will now run the New York offices.
Though a financial lawyer by training, and despite spending much of his career working for Dickson Concepts -- the Hong Kong firm that owns high-end retail outlets like Harvey Nichols -- Ching had been courted by Sotheby's for ten years because of his interest in the arts.
"I am a collector myself, I collect Chinese jadeite," explains the dapper Ching, who, in a sleek charcoal grey suit and thick-rimmed glasses, looks far younger than his 50 years.
"I had contacts through other collectors and an understanding of how the market works. It is a thrill to be able to take up a job that is rooted in my hobby -- I suppose I did it out of some sort of mid-life crisis.
"High-end retail and the art market do have some similarities -- they both appeal to the same customers, for example," he said.
Ching takes over a business much-changed from the one Howard-Sneyd inherited in 2000.
"Certainly the biggest difference is the Chinese involvement," he explains. "Chinese buyers are by no means dominant but they have certainly become a force."
He attributes Sotheby's soaring business in the region to the tenacity and talent of his predecessor, a charismatic character in the local art world.
"He has only ever worked in one company, Sotheby's -- and what he has achieved here is frightening," added Ching.
One of Howard-Sneyd's deftest touches was to introduce contemporary Chinese art sales to the auction house's annual calendar. The move has been a successful one and helped put modern Chinese art on the map.
Ching refutes claims that much of China's contemporary art have been overvalued by over-zealous first-time Chinese buyers snapping up new works out of a sense of patriotic loyalty.
"In the contemporary market, the majority of buyers are western, not Chinese, so that argument falls down," he says. "Much of modern Chinese art employs the sort of communist imagery and Cultural Revolution imagery that western buyers are fascinated by but I think Chinese buyers find commonplace."
He does believe, however, that patriotism has played a role in the development of the market for more historical Chinese pieces.
"As Chinese people have become richer I think they have taken to associating themselves with China's powerful past, so they buy up the artifacts of the imperial periods.
"I wouldn't say this is the over-riding reason they buy -- they buy mostly as investments -- but it is certainly in the back of their minds," Ching says.
©AFP