In one of the most expensive art sales ever, a Chinese art collector bought "Nu Coché" by Amedeo Modigliani. It is the sixth most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction.
The painting was expected to go for about $70.7 million, but Liu Yiqian purchased it for $107.4 million after fees. Yiqian and his wife plan to bring it to Shanghai where he owns two private art museums.
Yiqian was a taxi driver and sold smalls goods. However, during the major economic reform that happened in China, he was able to make his fortune through trading stocks in real estate and pharmaceuticals. He is worth approximately $1.5 billion.
I think this is a very interesting case. It shows how the opening and liberalization of China's economy has led to people being able to acquire mass amounts of wealth. It also shows how overvalued the art market is.
Do you think China will have a growing art market due to the increase in wealth? Will there be a bubble in the art market in general?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/arts/international/liu-yiqian-modigliani-nu-couche.html?_r=0
3 comments:
It is now very common in China that people can make fortune through trading stocks, even if they really know very little about how stock markets works. I do think the increasing wealth will effect the art market in China.
It is somewhat encouraging to see that there is more room for economic mobility in the Chinese markets, as "average" people are able to become wealthy through trading stocks. I agree that the overall spike in wealth will encourage the art market. However, an overvalued art market could potentially created problems in the overall economy. As for now, people should be cautious as to investing too much in art, as the market is easily subject to change.
I do wonder about economic mobility in China. It seems like there are a lot of opportunities to become wealthy, but are those opportunities only available to those who already have money, or can a peasant farmer become obscenely wealthy?
I do agree the art market is extremely overvalued, and the bubble will burst sometime soon. How soon, I don't know. But it'll be interesting to see what happens, especially to those who have a lot of their wealth in art.
Post a Comment