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.