Paintings by Raden Saleh, Spies to be auctioned

Paintings by Raden Saleh, Spies to be auctioned

By Amir Sidharta

JAKARTA (JP): In the upcoming Sotheby's and Christie's
auctions in Singapore of Southeast Asian paintings, four Raden
Saleh paintings and two by Walter Spies will be offered at this
weekend.

Sotheby's will hold its auction at Regent Hotel in Singapore
on Saturday and Christie's at Hyatt Regency on Sunday.

The combined value of the four Raden Saleh paintings is
estimated at between S$1.59 million (US$1.13 million) and S$2.18
million, while the Walter Spies paintings can be estimated at
S$800,000 to S$1.2 million each.

Last year, a large painting by Raden Saleh, entitled Deer
Hunt, fetched a record S$2.8 million. Works by Walter Spies have
sold at hammer prices of S$900,000. Based on these sales, it
seems that the paintings being offered in the upcoming auctions
are still reasonably priced. However, whether these paintings
sell is questionable.

The upcoming auctions include a select number of paintings,
such as those mentioned above, which are the stars of the show.
As these paintings are very well executed, it seems likely that
they will sell. Nonetheless, the prices will certainly limit the
number of potential bidders. One rather gruesome depiction,
entitled Fighting Animals and offered by Sotheby's, suits the
tastes of only a few collectors. The outcome of the auction is
hard to predict.

Although there are a few paintings of high value in the
auction, the other paintings being offered are of relatively
lower quality. In the future, auction houses are expected to
feature paintings that are of even lower quality.

"The existing collectors are becoming saturated by paintings,"
exclaimed Oei Hong Djien, a collector who has been closely
watching the behavior of the Indonesian art market.

"Collectors tend to become more selective in their choices of
paintings. Meanwhile, in general, the paintings offered by
auction houses have not increased in quality. Rather, the quality
generally has dropped," he added.

Oei stated that when new collectors enter the arena, they tend
to buy mainstream and "blue chip" works of art. "But later, their
appreciation will heighten and they will look for better
paintings. So, when they already have good paintings, they will
look for better ones, and they will tend to ignore mediocre
ones," he explained.

Collectors who have more than one painting by a well-known
artist usually place the works by that artist that they consider
secondary or of lower quality in auctions again. A Balinese
landscape by Walter Spies, which was sold at the Glerum auction
house in a June 1994 auction in the Netherlands to an Indonesian
collector, is to be offered at the upcoming Sotheby's auction.

Previous auctions

Many of the paintings to be offered at the upcoming auctions
have appeared in previous auctions. Other than the case mentioned
above, there are also some paintings which have failed to sell in
the past. In the Christie's catalog, one painting by Isaac
Israels is being offered at less than half of the estimate in its
previous offering, last October, through Sotheby's in Singapore.

A number of Donald Friend's works being offered by Christie's
appeared in auctions in Melbourne last year. They were sold to an
art dealer, who offered the paintings to a number of collectors
at astronomical prices. Failing to sell the pieces at high
prices, the dealer is depending on the auction houses to
determine the true prices of the paintings, by offering them at a
relatively low and reasonable estimate.

Even though some people fear that the auctions are threatening
the art business, their presence in Singapore has been for the
most part welcomed by art dealers and galleries, as they tend to
stabilize the prices of paintings.

"We base our prices on auction results and, therefore, we
attend auctions regularly," a gallery manager in South Jakarta
revealed.

"If the prices at the auction increase, we will increase the
prices accordingly. If they go down, we will lower the prices as
well," she added.

Oei pointed out that the current prices for Affandi's
paintings have been set primarily by auctions. "In the first
Christie's auction in Singapore in 1994, the prices of Affandi's
were set too high. The offered paintings failed to sell and
rumors spread that Affandi's paintings were not saleable. But
then the prices in the following auctions were adjusted to better
suit the market, and now they are stable," he explained.

In the March 1994 auctions in Singapore, five paintings by
Affandi were offered. As there was virtually no means to
determine the current market prices of Affandi's paintings at the
time, the paintings were estimated at S$90,000 to S$100,000 and
S$130,000 to S$165,000.

After the March auctions, the estimates for Affandi's
paintings dropped to between S$18,000 and S$25,000 and S$40,000
to S$60,000. In October 1995, the estimated prices stabilized at
around S$15,000 to S$35,000. These prices showed a gradual
increase in the March 1996 auction. The increase seems steady and
the most recent auction estimates can be used to determine the
current prices of Affandi's paintings as well as other paintings.

The Indonesian art boom has attracted three international
auction houses to enter the Southeast Asian art market.
Initially, all three were planning to have auctions at the end of
March. This caused anxiety in the field. Some observers saw that
the attempt to sell around 500 paintings in one weekend would
have become detrimental to the auctions themselves. Luckily,
Glerum has decided to postpone their auction until June.

Although the upcoming auctions offer a little less than 400
paintings, only about 200 paintings of Indonesian subjects will
be offered. The remainder are from Malaysia, Singapore, the
Philippines and Vietnam. It is clear that the auction houses are
no longer depending on the Indonesian art market, but are
starting to look into other markets in the region.

Actually, in addition to entering new markets, auction houses
should also expand their marketing in Indonesia. "It is
absolutely necessary for the auction houses to entice newcomers
to start collecting paintings. These newcomers can start with
paintings of low quality which are being offered. Anyway, they
will certainly tend to concentrate on mainstream and "blue chip"
paintings, which are more liquid," Oei said, adding that later
on, they can start collecting better paintings.

There is little doubt that auction houses have started to make
efforts to draw more new collectors into the auction arena. On
Tuesday and yesterday, Christie's presented a series of Gallery
Talks at the Museum Seni Rupa, featuring their specialists. On
Tuesday, Michael Findlay presented a lecture on Impressionist
paintings, and Jop Ubbens spoke on Java in Pictures in the 19th
Century. Yesterday, Anthony Lin spoke about Early Chinese Blue
and White Ceramics and Recent Discoveries, while Bruce Carpenter,
author of a book on the painter W.G. Hofker, discussed From
Ancestor Figures to Court Arts in Indonesian Society.

The impact of the auction houses' efforts to develop the art
market in Indonesia remains unclear. As for the Raden Saleh
paintings, one might not be sold because of its morbid subject
matter, while another might not be popular due to its European
subject matter.

However, one should never underestimate the Indonesian market.
There may be bidders for Raden's European pastoral landscape
because of its relatively low estimate. It is also possible that
all of them will be sold. "I am sure that all the four will be
sold," predicted art critic Agus Dermawan.

Which ones will sell is still uncertain. What is certain, is
that the results of this auction will determine the prices of art
works of Indonesian subjects in galleries and exhibitions, as
well as private sales and even in other auctions which will be
held later this year.