Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Picasso Does Asia

With the likelihood that Ben Bernanke and his Fed Bandits are about to launch a major money printing operation, asset prices are likely to climb significantly, including art.

Thus, it is interesting that art dealers are beginning to promote Picasso in Asia.

WSJ reports:
Picasso is set to make a splash in Hong Kong this autumn, with not one, but three sales in the city.


Two of the city’s top galleries and auctioneer Sotheby’s are hosting exhibitions of the Spanish artist’s work that will also offer fans the chance to buy pieces from across Picasso’s career...

There are only a handful of serious collectors of Picasso paintings in Asia, primarily in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan, according to art-market experts in the region. However, many dealers say they believe China in particular is emerging as an important market for a wide range of blue-chip Western art. Earlier this month, an Asian buyer paid 18.1 million Hong Kong dollars ($2.4 million) for “Le Modèle dans l’Atelier,” a 1965 Picasso, at Seoul Auction in Hong Kong.
Given that global inflation will push art prices higher, new demand out of Asia for Picasso art will simply be a kicker that will result in record prices for Picasso paintings in the years ahead.

1 comment:

  1. Rob

    One of the best documentaries currently around is "The Art of The Steal." The documentary shows how governments, lawyers, "philanthropic foundations" and politically connected business worked to pervert and ultimately destroy the greatest private art collection in the world, the Barnes Foundation. Barnes was an old fashioned entrepreneur and art lover who built a modern art collection now valued in excess of $20- $30 billion USD. He purchased it before modern and impressionist styles became fashionable and explicitly willed against his collection getting into the hands of the "public museum set." He used his collection as the basis of school for artists. Unfortunately business and personal rivals were able to enlist the power of state and city governments and "private" foundations to effectively expropriate the collection.

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