Since joining Sotheby’s London 25 years ago to assess Chinese art, Howard-Sneyd has seen the house’s Asian art department develop from a quiet niche into a global powerhouse. Now the division’s vice chairman and executive vice president of Sotheby’s North America, he talked with Eileen Kinsella about the category’s complex, continuously shifting cluster of markets and the evolving tastes and demands of diverse collectors.
What changes have you observed in the Asian art market in 25 years?
I’ve seen a lot of growth, but also the ups and downs. There are usually sequential waves of collecting interest. I joined Sotheby’s when the Japanese bubble burst. Hong Kong collectors stepped in almost immediately after that, and their influence has remained constant. At times Taiwanese demand has been strong, but it’s more recently—in the past five to eight years— that mainland Chinese buyers have been widely collecting.
To what market effect?
Mainland Chinese buyers are a very important part of how the market has progressed, particularly in Chinese ceramics and works of art. But they don’t sweep up everything before them. There are plenty of global collectors who compete strongly in that area. The result is that people who have otherwise been able to buy for one price are now forced to pay a price reflecting greater interest. What has happened is that buyers have focused—though not quite sequentially—on different areas of art. As one area becomes more expensive, other areas seem less so.
What are some examples?
Prices for porcelains, imperial art, and jade moved up earlier, leaving classical Chinese furniture and ancient bronzes somewhat behind. Over the last year or so, we’ve seen greater interest in the latter areas. There has always been interest from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and the West in bronzes, but the Chinese mainlanders have become increasingly interested. Archaic bronzes have a profound cultural importance that is somewhat greater than other areas. This might be the season where we see a real jump.
What else has market strength this season?
We expect to offer our biggest and most important sale of Chinese classical paintings in New York to date. Interest in this field historically has been strong in New York, and the pieces that come to auction here are very strongly influenced by provenance.
How so?
It has to do with security of provenance and authenticity, which for mainland Chinese collectors—many of whom are new to the market—is a fraught issue. So an object with an established historical record has a greater chance of being genuine. One reason the New York market is strong is that pieces tend to come from established, old collections and therefore are particularly attractive to the current collecting public.
Have there been any other notable shifts?
At the last series of New York sales—for the first time in a while—I saw a lot of Japanese bidders, knocking everybody else out and bidding against each other.
What’s behind that return?
The Japanese economy seems to be in a better place; it could also represent a change in generations. But Japanese taste isn’t easy to define. They tend to have very specific interests: The tea ceremony, for instance, relies on a carefully designed mise-en-scène—there should always be a painting hanging or some object of beauty to be admired. It can be hard to predict, but if a particular bowl fits into their aesthetic, it might be a source of competition. It’s more about individual objects as opposed to a particular field.
Do religious, specifically Buddhist, themes spark interest in Chinese buyers?
That is an example of where interest crosses over from one category to another. But it’s specifically through the window of Tibetan and Himalayan art or [works from] northern India. The influence of eastern Indian Pala art during the medieval period had significant impact on the development of the exported Buddha image, including an 18th-century Tibeto-Chinese Pala revival. Chinese buyers are still keenly interested in the acquisition of high-value Himalayan works that reflect the elegance and sophistication of the Pala period.
What is the state of the Indian and Southeast Asian markets?
They are still driven largely by great museums and private collections. It’s a much more measured market and more mature field. You’re less likely to see fireworks.
This article is published in the September 2013 issue of Art+Auction.
