The art markets, including Chinese art, seem to have firmed up, around the world, in the last month.  Auctions, in New York, London and Hong Kong, seem to have surprised others who follow the art markets.  As art investors, we never worry about the periodic downturns of art or any other markets: it's part of markets' natural excesses, which come both on the upsides and downsides of markets trends.  We are only careful to not get caught up in buying during bubbles.  We might sell into bubbles, and we are buyers when the tide turns the other way.  The other thing about downturns is that you get to enjoy the art that you own for an even longer period of time, and, as long as you did not overpay for it, in the first place, and you do not get yourself into a position of too little cash and having to make a premature forced sale, you will still earn a reasonable percentage return over time.

Of course, it's not that we believe things just because they are in print or in the news.  To be sure, we have made money, often, because of false news stories that we knew, from our own research, to be not true.  However, we have seen such a firming and increase in business at Leona Craig, also, in the last month.  Since early June, for example, eight "Red Guard Girl" paintings by Da Zhong Zhang (Zhang Da Zhong) have sold out.  We have also seen interest and activity, in works by a number of other painters, like Jin Ming Li (Li Jin Ming), several of whose works we have sold, in the past week.  Perhaps, it is that Chinese girls are popular since the works that have been sold by Zhang and Li were portraits of Red Guard Girls, Chinese minority girls, and just plain Chinese girls in various settings.  In addition, though, we have seen interest and sales in works by some of our better teapot artists, including our favorite, Lu Wen Xia, and we actually sold seven works of teapot art, in the last week, alone.  Another small sign of the reawakening of the art markets is that we have been, consistently, getting several targeted searches per week going to our website from a web directory that we joined back at the beginning of the year.  Previously, visits to our website from targeted searches from that particular directory were running about one every two months, until the last month or so since which time we have been getting reports of targeted search visits, almost daily.  We have even had a number of calls about both painting and teapot art, wanting to buy works, just days after they were sold.  The interest that we have been seeing, in art, at Leona Craig is coming from a diverse pool of buyers, including, not only local Chinese buyers, but also from Hong Kong and Europe.  Thus, while reading sage opinions about art given by armchair analysts of art markets, we see a noticeable change in the business, recently: a real pick up.

Another interesting phenomenon that we have that we have picked up in the announcements of auctions, this spring and early summer, is that some very rare works, which have been in private collections for decades, are coming up for sales.  It could be that even the very rich are feeling the pinch of the global financial crisis, but, whatever the reason for those sales, their saleability simply reiterates the firmness in the markets.

In Chinese art, in the auctions, a record of $5.4 million was paid for an oil painting by Sanyu, an artist from the second generation of 20th century westernized Chinese art, and works by other artists of the same generation.  Indeed, we have works by several artists from that generation, Xu Jian Bai and Tan Xue Sheng, in the Leona Craig gallery, because we feel that they still have great potential for future appreciation, and we have seen recent interest, also, in works by them.

In our wanderings and in our business, we have seen prices increasing.  My partner is doing an exhibition at the gallery with Xin Ming Xuan (Xuan Xin Ming), for example, and even though prices are up quite a bit from a year ago, sales are being made.  We are seeing the same, both at other exhibitions and down in Xiaozhou, the small artists' village, in the south of Guangzhou.

All of the reports that we have read have been optimistic but cautious, focusing on the fact that quality art has sold, and the hype art has been fairly absent.  However, we would say that it is no reason to be cautious just because there is no hype: that's a good thing.  In fact, as a professional investor, I realize that when there is hype of any sort, in any market, it is time to run for the exits.  I also realize that when everyone is completely gloomy about a market, it is the time to buy, and that is what we had been doing over the last year.  Moreover, even in the present state of the art markets, while we are also selling, we still see opportunities to buy, as others remain cautious, fearful, and in need of cash flow.

We have included, below, links to a smattering of other recent pertinent articles about the art markets:

Art Basel 40 http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=31464
Rare Impressionist & modern art up for sale Sotheby's May 2009 http://tiny.cc/Tyt1J
New York Times May 9, 2009: Chinese art market firming up http://tiny.cc/GQQdL
Older American Art sales reasonable yet strong at Christie's in early May 2009 http://bit.ly/7Eyif
Financial Times Blog http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/06/15/57061/art-market-comeback-or-is-it/ 
Rare Old Masters come up for auction at Sotheby's in July http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=31399
A Christie's record set for Chinese oil painting http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/arts/design/26arts-ACHRISTIESRE_BRF.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimesarts