Asia

Christie’s have won a High Court bid in Hong Kong to prevent another auction house benefiting from using a name that was sufficiently close to theirs to cause confusion.

The Chinese government is considering regulation of the country’s burgeoning but problematic art market.

Fishermen are reported to have discovered another ancient shipwreck, complete with cargo, in the South China Sea near Vung Tau off the South East coast of Vietnam.

The antiques trade could soon fall victim to the global rattan shortage prompted by an Indonesian export ban.

Beijing-based auction house China Guardian is reported to be launching a sales programme in Hong Kong this autumn.

SOTHEBY’S concluded their latest Hong Kong series of sales on April 4, raising a premium-inclusive total of over HK$2.46bn (£212.5m) for the eight sales containing over 2780 lots.

LARGE new gallery spaces in Hong Kong look set to provide the battleground in the competition for private treaty sales between Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

THE selectivity in the Chinese ceramics and works of art market seen in London in early November was repeated during Christie’s and Bonhams’ latest Asian series in Hong Kong.

SPINK have acquired Hong Kong-based Phila China, a philatelic auction house founded by Anna Lee.

A NEW live auction platform which will give UK auctioneers direct access to Chinese bidders has been launched in Beijing.

COLLECTABLES specialists Stanley Gibbons have opened a new office in Hong Kong in a bid to stake a claim in the Asian market for coins, military medals, stamps and historical documents.

IT took 50 bids and half an hour to auction this RMB370m (£35m) scroll, by Qi Baishi (1864-1957) at Beijing's China Guardian on May 22 – the latest demonstration of the breadth of mainland demand for modern Chinese paintings by the country's most acclaimed artists.

SOTHEBY’S latest Asian series represented an all-time high for the firm in Hong Kong.

CHINA’s fourth largest auction house, the Beijing Council International Auction Company, have opened an office in the US with the aim of sourcing material to sell in mainland China.

CHINA has pushed the United Kingdom into third place as a player in the world art market and is now second only to the United States.

DEMAND for fine wines showed no sign of abating at the latest round of auctions in Hong Kong.

THE world auction record for a Chinese ceramic of work of art toppled during Sotheby's latest week-long Asian sales series of classical, modern and contemporary Chinese art, watches, wine and jewellery in Hong Kong.

EXPERIMENTAL technology designed to determine the age of ceramics by scientific means is now being put to use at the heart of the Chinese works of art trade.

A SERIES of guidelines designed to encourage standard and proper practice in the fine art auction industry in China were unveiled on June 31. They are the first measures of their type since sales by auction were permitted to resume in the People’s Republic 23 years ago.

BEIJING auctioneers Poly established a new milestone for Chinese art on June 3 selling a 38ft (15m) long calligraphic hand scroll by a Song Dynasty master for RMB390m ($57.4m) plus 12 per cent buyer's premium.