PRESS PAGE
THE TIME IS NOW FOR ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART
Record prices at Larasati’s 5th anniversary auction in Singapore
- New sales records achieved including Ugy Sugiarto’s ‘Apelay Boy’ at $20,400, 583% above estimates, and Masriadi’s ‘Me and My Coke’ at $240,000, 533% above estimates
- New price records for a variety of Asian contemporary artists including Ugy Sugiarto, Lydia Velasco, Lim Wasim and Cho Jung Wha.
- New registered bidders record from last SG auction with 50% from across the globe – 45% increase in Singaporean bidders
Singapore, April 16 2008 – Larasati Auctioneers reports new track records set at its fifth anniversary auction last Sunday, April 13 2008 – ‘Pictures of Asia’. At the one-day auction that offered a boutique collection of 214 lots, LARASATI hammered off record prices for a variety of Asian contemporary artists from Indonesia, Philippines, China, Korea and India, and noted a new record number of 252 registered bidders from across the globe.
At its 11th sale in Singapore, many lots went over five times their estimates, and hammer prices were on par with those achieved in Hong Kong only a few days before. Some works even hit higher prices.
Top performing artists and their artworks include Ugy Sugiarto’s “Apelay Boy” at 583% above estimates, Sapto Sugiyo Utomo’s “Elegy of Carton Houses” (549%), I Nyoman Masriadi’s “Me and My Coke” (533%), Lydia Velasco’s “Spring” (440%), Lim Wasim’s “Girls on the banks of a river” (366%), Roland Strasser’s “Seated Balinese Woman” (357%), Lee Man Fong’s “Rooster and Hen” (352%), Theo Meier’s “Dewi Sri” (349%), Alit Sembodo’s “Knock Out!” (343%), Agus Suwage’s “Pandora Box” (273%) and Cho Jung Wha’s “Spring” (240%).
Top five highest sales went to Luo Brothers’ “Welcome the World’s Famous Brand” at S$276,000 including premium, Masriadi’s “Me and My Coke” (S$240,000), Agus Suwage’s “Pandora Box” (S$150,000), Lee Man Fong’s “Rooster and Hen” (S$132,000), and Putu Sutawijaya’s “Parade of Masks” (S$93,600).
Holding the keen foresight that Korean contemporary art will be the big thing after the Chinese and Indian art, Larasati offered 19 Korean lots this time, more than double the number of Korean lots compared to its last auction in October last year in Singapore. Korean artists featured at the auction include Choi So-Young, Yi Hwan Kwon, Ahn Sung Ha, Kim Tschang-Yeul, and Yoon Byung Rock.
Daniel Komala, CEO of Larasati Auctioneers said, “We have followed Korean contemporary art closely since 2004, and are confident that Korean art is on the up as the unique style, quality and material adopted by their artists have garnered them strong regional appeal. We specially selected the 19 pieces offered to not only give our buyers an overall flavour of what Korean contemporary art is but also likely its future icons. This auction is probably one of most complete Korean contemporary art offered in art auctions. The positive response to the Korean pieces at the auction reinforces our belief that this is a good time to buy Korean art.”
Cho Jung Wha achieved her highest record price to-date at S$62,400 for “Spring”, 240% above estimates. Choi So-Young’s “The Landscape in Busan” also achieved one of the highest sales in the auction going for S$90,000. Korean art has already proven over the past two years to fetch record prices with October Yi Hwan Kwon’s “Windy Day” fetching a world record price for the table-top size of S$65,000.
The forward-looking Asian-based auction house achieved total sales of S$3.3M including premium and sold 87% of the 214 lots offered.
In this auction, Larasati received a leap in registered bidders from all the world including Europe, US, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines and Singapore. This auction also saw a significant rise in the number of local bidders, with 65% of buyers being Singaporean.
Mr. Komala said, “The 214-lot collection was painstakingly selected from over 1000 pieces to represent one of the best in class, while appealing to buyers of various levels. We are delighted with the response. The records achieved from this and our past auctions send a clear signal that there is a growing global interest in Asian contemporary art. One of our record bids at this auction is Masriadi’s “Me and My Coke” which was snapped up by a new buyer in Monaco for S$240,000. This reinforces Larasati’s confidence that now is the time to buy Asian contemporary art, especially rising new stars like Korean art.”
Recognising the rise in global interest in Asian contemporary art, Larasati plans to hold an auction in Amsterdam on 2nd June this year.