Auction houses reap benefit of art collectors' woes

Auction houses reap benefit of art collectors' woes

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): The effects of the financial crisis are only now
beginning to have an effect on the art market, as can be seen in
the upcoming Sotheby's and Christie's auctions which will be held
on Saturday Oct. 3 and Sunday Oct 4.

About 150 of the 200 paintings offered by Sotheby's are linked
to Indonesia, while Christie's is offering more than 180
paintings, of which about 120 are relevant to Indonesia. The
third auction house dealing in Southeast Asian art, Bonhams-
Glerum, has decided to postpone its sale until March next year,
evidently also because of the current economic situation.

Before the crisis, people submitted their paintings for sale
because prices were on the rise. Now, they have another reason to
sell their collections: they are strapped for cash.

During the "good old days", auction houses found it very hard
to obtain quality paintings directly from collectors. They were
forced to go through art dealers. Nowadays, it seems auction
houses are receiving many paintings from collectors.

This is illustrated by the sale of a couple of dozen of the
paintings in the Christie's auction. The works, which are being
treated as a special section called The Collection of A Private
Indonesian Collector, include paintings by Lee Man Fong, Ida
Bagus Made, G. Adolfs, Dullah, Popo Iskandar, Basoeki Abdullah,
Affandi, Widayat, Rudolf Bonnet and Hendra Gunawan.

In a special leaflet published to accompany the catalog, there
is a hint about the collection. It says the collection was
assembled in the Old Order, in the Sukarno era. Two of the eight
paintings by Affandi depict scenes from New York and Times
Square, painted in 1962. That year, Affandi did spend time with
the Indonesian artist Sudjana Kerton who lived in Mt. Cisco, near
New York City.

Apparently he also visited New York City with the unidentified
collector, who claims that he accompanied Affandi while the
artist painted the work.

"The collection seems most likely to be Gumilang's," exclaimed
an experienced art observer.

The person he means is Oetoyo Gumilang, the owner of a famous
gallery in the 1970s and early 1980s called Oet's Fine Art
Gallery, in Cipete, South Jakarta. Gumilang was indeed a
prominent art collector, and he did start his collection during
the Sukarno years.

Whether the collection really is Gumilang's we may never find
out.

What is clear though is that the works are merely one among
many similar collections. As the paintings in the two auctions
have primarily come from collectors, there are quite a number of
works in the upcoming sales that have appeared in earlier
auctions.

Another art observer, who has connections with some of the
collectors who are selling, claims that those who are selling are
not selling because they really need the money. Instead, he says:
"The collectors seem to be starting to focus their collections.
So, they are using this time to sell some of their works,
particularly those that are no longer in line with the focus of
their collection, while holding on to the works which will make
up their core collection."

Highlights of the Sotheby's auction include five large works
on canvas by Belgian painter Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres,
which stand out among his many other works. During the last
Singapore auctions, timed rather inauspiciously during the
weekend immediately after the May riots, a work by this artist
fetched an incredible S$550,000 (US$325,000) in the Sotheby's
sale.

Fund-raising

The Sotheby's sale will be concluded with a fund-raising sale
to benefit the Jakarta Arts Foundation, Jakarta Arts Center, and
the Jakarta Arts Council in their efforts to raise money to hold
the Eleventh Jakarta Biennial, to be held in November.

The net proceeds of the sale will be used to finance the
Eleventh Biennial. The Tenth Biennial was held in 1996. Artists
deem this upcoming Biennial to be extremely crucial, because in
Indonesia it will be the first to be held in the Post-Soeharto
era, and one of the last events to conclude this millennium.

Contrary to rumor, this sale does not include any works from
the famed collection of the Jakarta Arts Council. Rather, it
offers works by a select group of 30 Indonesian artists,
including Rusli, Kartika Affandi, Nyoman Gunarsa, Dede Eri
Supria, Wayan Sika, Made Irawan and Made Wianta, that have been
chosen by a team of arts council curators. Each artist will be
offering one of their works.

The Jakarta Arts Foundation, Center and Council are making the
best use of the auction season to raise money, but they have not
resorted to selling their collection, which are considered some
of the best in the country.

For this benefit sale, the handling and shipping of the
paintings has been sponsored by Helu-Trans, a Singapore packing
and shipping company that is making great efforts to make art
transportation one of their main specialities.

The idea to hold a biennial benefit sale was prompted in part
by Indonesia's economic crisis. It was clear to the organizers
that, taking into consideration the current financial situation,
it was unlikely that any company would be able to afford to fund
the event.

The economic situation also does not seem to warrant the
holding of the auctions in Indonesia, as there would be few
potential local buyers. Those who are still able to support the
arts are currently reluctant to support events publicly, because
any issue involving money seems to be a very sensitive issue at
the moment.

On the other hand, the extremely high value of the dollar
against the rupiah provides Indonesian artists with a handsome
advantage. In dollar terms, the works of Indonesian artists have
become relatively cheap, so artists have a better chance of
selling their works outside Indonesia rather than in country. For
example, the works being offered in this section of the sale
range between S$850 and S$9,000, extremely low compared to the
other works offered in this auction season, some of which are
expected to go for hundreds of thousands of Singapore dollars.

While the Sotheby's sale features 30 works selected by the
Jakarta Arts Council, Christie's is offering 19 paintings in the
Contemporary Southeast Asian Pictures section of its auction. And
while it is certainly timely to hold auctions of Contemporary art
by Indonesian artists, the market is still relatively young and
largely nationalistic.

The success of Sotheby's and Christie's in the upcoming sale
will certainly be dependent on whether the two auction houses
have done their homework in promoting Indonesian art abroad.

Yet, it seems more and more evident that the future auction
market will be contemporary Indonesian and Southeast Asian art.
So with the current collector's market emerging, we will be sure
to see more contemporary art entering the auction houses in the
months to come.

-- The writer is curator of the Museum Universitas Pelita
Harapan, Lippo Karawaci, in Tangerang, West Java.