WANG Guangyi (1957)

Every fortnight, Artprice provides a short round up of art market news: My Buenos Aires – Sigg Collection – Gagosian – Nam June Paik

Two weeks after the news of China’s domination of the global art market, all eyes were focused on the sale of the famous Ullens Collection at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on 3 April 2011.

While London’s auctioneers congratulate themselves on the healthy sold rates at their June Contemporary Art sales (92.5% at Sotheby’s, 88% at Christie’s and 75% at Phillips de Pury & Company), bidders are continuing on a path of caution and sobriety.

At the end of the first quarter of 2009, the global art market price index showed a 10% contraction. But in New York City, host to some of the world’s most prestigious art sales, the crisis is being felt particularly hard: the same index shows a 35% local contraction since January 2008.

The most speculative and volatile markets over the last four years, emerging art markets have propelled a number of Chinese, Indian, Russian and Middle-Eastern contemporary artists into the global limelight with extraordinary speed. But with so many young artists fetching such big figures at auctions, some kind of meltdown was inevitable.