Trainee journalist Ivan
As the end of the year approaches, the festive atmosphere is getting stronger, and several major auction houses that gather global wealth and upstarts have also announced this year's turnover. According to data released by auction houses, in 2021, the total auction turnover of the world's three major auction houses this year reached a record of more than 15 billion US dollars (about 100 billion yuan).
Sotheby's auction house sold a total of $7.3 billion in 2021, the highest since the bank was founded 277 years ago. Christie's auction house grossed $7.1 billion this year, a five-year high. Phillips' auction house also recorded annual turnover of $1.2 billion.
(Source: Collected and sorted by China Fund News reporter)
CnBC reported that the record high turnover was helped by government stimulus measures, central bank easing, soaring asset prices and a rebound in consumer demand, and global wealth surged during the epidemic. In addition, the boom in cryptocurrencies and online stock trading has spawned a new generation of wealthy young collectors. At the same time, the inclusion of NFT (Non-Fungible Token) artwork also boosted the transaction volume.
According to information released by auction houses, the most expensive work of art sold this year is the painting "The Woman Sitting by the Window (Marie-Thérèse)" by the Spanish master Pablo Picasso. The painting was auctioned for a whopping $103.4 million (about 660 million yuan) in just 19 minutes in New York, On May 13, by Christie's auction house, and the bid was an anonymous collector.
(Bro Picasso, "The Woman Sitting by the Window (Marie-Thales)" Source: Shoichi Art)
The second-highest-priced Jean-Michel Basquiat's masterpiece "In This Case" fetched $93.1 million (about 600 million yuan).
Nearly 50 million paintings were taken at the Shanghai Private Art Museum
Behind it is the A-share capital boss
In the information released by the three major auction houses this year, the China Fund News reporter noticed that a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe of the 20th century art master Georgia O'Keeffe ("Crab's Claw Ginger Hawaii." The painting was auctioned by the Long Museum of Art in Shanghai for $7.7 million (about 50 million yuan).
After inquiring, the Fund Daily reporter found that the Long Museum (Long Museum) is a private art museum, and currently has three large-scale venues in Shanghai and Chongqing at the same time - the Long Art Museum (Pudong Museum), the Dragon Art Museum (West Bund) and the Long Art Museum (Chongqing Pavilion), and the founders are Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei.
(Georgia O'Keeffe, "Red Ginger Crab Claw Flower - Hawaii" Source: Wall Street Journal)
Liu Yiqian is currently the chairman of Xinliyi Group Co., Ltd. and the chairman of Tianmao Industry, an A-share listed company. At the same time, New Liyi is also the largest shareholder of Changjiang Securities, another A-share listed company.
As of press time, Tianmao Group closed up 3.73% at 3.34 yuan, with a total market value of 16.502 billion. Changjiang Securities rose 1.63% to close at 7.5 yuan, with a total market value of 41.475 billion yuan.
(Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei Source: Sohu)
Continuing to dig deeper, Liu Yiqian's experience is legendary.
According to public information, Liu Yiqian was born in Shanghai in 1963 and began to start a business after graduating from junior high school. In 1990, he found a business opportunity and began to speculate on treasury bills, using 100 shares of "Yuyuan Mall" stocks to buy low and sell high, and made nearly 1 million yuan. Become the first pot of gold for the initial capital.
At the beginning of 2000, Liu Yiqian established "Shanghai New Liyi Investment", which included the legal person shares of more than a dozen listed companies through transfer or auction, including Peking University Auto Dealership, Hebei Huayu, Encyclopedia Pharmaceutical, Angel Yeast, Weida Medical Equipment, etc. And entered the company's top 10 shareholders.
In 2010, the real estate under its name increased by 10 billion yuan in 19 years. In 2004, Tianping Auto Insurance Co., Ltd. and Guohua Life Insurance Co., Ltd. were established. In April 2013, it established a joint venture with French insurance giant AXA.
In February 2020, the Liu Yiqian family ranked 386th in the Hurun Global Rich List with a wealth of 41 billion yuan.
He is also a collector of ashes art. He spent more than $100 million on "Nu couche" by Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani in May 2015. It has also been auctioned dozens of times by auction houses around the world.
But auctioning art also created controversy for him. On April 8, 2014, Liu Yiqian auctioned the Ming Cheng Hua Doucai Chicken Bowl Cup for HK$280 million at sotheby's Chinese Porcelain Auction in Hong Kong. In July of that year, an article titled "The Legal Money Laundering Behind the 280 Million Chicken Bowl Cups" attracted widespread public attention. The author of the article questioned Liu Yiqian for laundering money through auctions.
On July 28, Liu Yiqian issued the following statement:
Recently, some people signed "Jiang Yinfeng" used the online platform to publish an article on "legal money laundering behind 280 million chicken bowl cups", which is crude in literature. The article falsely claimed that I had created a "sky-high fake auction" in the art market, openly slandering my reputation and suspected of defamation. I have entrusted lawyer Xiao Guoxing of Shanghai Taiji Law Firm to pursue and pursue criminal responsibility through judicial channels. Hereby declare that it is in order to correct the audio-visual.
Metaversal NFT artworks are rapidly emerging
Virtual currency payments are accepted
2021 can be called the first year of the meta-universe, and it is also the first year of the NFT. NFTs equipped with the concept of metacosmity and crypto-blockchain have exploded, which has also been confirmed in this year's art auction field.
NFT is an abbreviation for a non-homogeneous token that certifies ownership of a digital work, such as animation, film, photograph, or music, that cannot be forged or otherwise manipulated.
The three major auction houses have begun to include NFT artworks in the collectibles category of auctions this year. According to data released by auction houses, Christie's total NFT turnover reached $150 million, accounting for 8% of its annual modern art sales; Sotheby's NFT turnover was $100 million; and Fulvis also said that each of its NFT collections at auction was very popular.
In February, Christie's first NFT work " Everydays: The First 5000 Days " in London , which was sold for $69.35 million on March 11 , is an image of a 5,000-piece work created by American digital painting artist Beeple. The work also became the third most valuable artwork in the history of auctions of works by living artists, shocking the global art world. On March 13, Christie's announced that the final buyer would be Metakovan, founder of the NFT fund Metapurse.
（Beeple《Everydays: The First 5000 Days》图源：BBC）
And Sotheby's is not far behind. Following the first online NFT auction with NFT auction platform Nifty Gateway in April, a select NFT platform called Sotheby's Metaverse was launched in October this year. Users can view digital artworks in auctions on the platform and learn about the collectors and artists behind NFTs.
(Screenshot of the "Sotheby's Meta universe" platform)
In addition, it is worth noting that the three major auction houses have officially announced the acceptance of virtual currency (Bitcoin/Ether) payments this year. On June 23 this year, Sotheby's Hong Kong announced that the upcoming auction of 101.38 carats of D color flawless white diamonds will accept full payment from virtual currency, including the hammer price and commission.
The younger generation is rapidly pouring in
Asian buyers are generous
This year's auctions have reached record highs in total sales, driven by a new generation of young collectors who have never been customers of major auction houses before.
Sotheby's said 44 percent of this year's bidders were new buyers, while half of Phisby's buyers this year were bidding for the first time. At Christie's, 35% of buyers are new buyers, and two-thirds of them enter through online auctions. And a third of the new buyers are millennials.
A new generation of young collectors familiar with technology has sprung up and begun to dabble in physical art. For example, Sun Yuchen, the founder of TRON and a former warp buffett, bought Alberto Giacometti's sculpture "Nose" for $78.4 million in New York last month.
The influx of new collectors is inextricably linked to new auction formats. Due to the global impact of the epidemic, major auction houses have turned to online live auctions.
(Screenshot of a live auction of Sotheby's Source: Zhihu)
In the case of Sotheby's, for example, since May this year, Sotheby's has simultaneously expanded its online business while reopening its exhibition space and auction hall – according to statistics, more than 16.6 million people watched the live online auction this year, 13.2 million non-repeat visitors to Sotheby's official website, and 6.5 million non-repeat viewers of the electronic catalogue; in addition, Sotheby's recorded more than 200,000 online bids this year, accounting for 92% of the total number of bids, and the online auction turnover also broke the record, reaching 800 million US dollars.
Asian buyers also contributed to turnover. Nearly one-third of Christie's auction turnover this year was contributed to Asian buyers, and the Hong Kong Autumn Auction also set an Asian auction record with HK$3.8 billion. Sotheby's also said that Asian collectors are important promoters in global auctions and different sectors, with about one-third of the bidding amount in its global auctions coming from Asian collectors, while 46% of the lots of more than $5 million were bid by Asian collectors or voted by them, writing another record year for The Asian region. Phis also said that more than half of its top ten works of art in annual turnover were auctioned off by Asian buyers.
EDIT: Captain