Prices soar as gavel comes down on Noe art collection

Prices soar as gavel comes down on Noe art collection

By Jason Tedjasukmana

JAKARTA (JP): All doubts surrounding the prospects of the
auction business in Indonesia were hammered away last week when
Christie's disposed of every dish, drawing and dagger of the
Adrian Noe estate.

Nothing was left to chance as a combination of conservative
estimates, feverish bidding and the patience of Australian
auctioneer Roger Mcllroy helped Christie's to raise US$1.7
million for the Adrian Noe Foundation.

In the moments prior to last Thursday's sale, the first
conducted here by the London-based auction house, anticipation
and mystery filled the room. Some 400 people registered to bid
and prospective buyers came from as far away as Hong Kong and the
U.K., setting the stage for Jakarta's first truly international
auction.

The sale's first session, which gathered the collection's most
important 95 lots, was not the stuff of neophytes. The three-hour
event at Erasmus Huis may have been a first, but those in
attendance were no strangers to auction.

Paddles flew up the moment the bidding began for the opening
lot, a blanc-de-chine figurine sold for $5,500, nearly twice the
estimate. The pattern continued, with the hammer routinely
falling at two, three, four times the printed estimates. In one
extraordinary case, two bidders locked into a contest for an
unexceptional 19th-century Dutch colonial cabinet estimated at
$1,500-2,000. Jaws dropped and heads turned until the madness was
over at $40,000.

"There must have been gold in the drawers," murmured one woman
in the room.

The success of the first 81 decorative works of art paved the
way for the pictures that remained. With the auctioneer egging on
the cash-happy crowd with reminders that all proceeds were going
"to help the underprivileged children of Indonesia", the air was
cleared for the evening's heavy hitters.

A mid-1970s Portrait of Han Groenewegen by Affandi quickly
reached $40,000, and a sedate pastel by Dutch-born painter Rudolf
Bonnet climbed to slightly above its high estimate to $22,000.
The sale's star lot, an early Walter Spies oil from 1924
depicting the Dieng Plateau in Central Java, brought in the top
price of $320,000. Though it fell short of the low estimate, the
hammer price was solid evidence of the growing demand for works
by the German-born painter, whose known oeuvre is said to number
fewer than 100 paintings.

Going once

The mania failed to subside during the sale's second session
the following day, when other unremarkable items became the
objects of frenzied bidding. When a pair of Javanese keris
estimated at $100-150 fetched $18,000, many in the room were left
to wonder, What gives?

Names like Greta Garbo, Barbara Streisand and Jackie O (whose
collection will be sold at Sotheby's in New York this Spring)
carry an obvious cachet. Owning a set cookie jars once belonging
to Andy Warhol is, for some, akin to acquiring a piece of the
legend himself.

In the case of Adrian Noe, who died last year at the age of
75, the explanation is less obvious. The long-time Chase
Manhattan banker and resident of Indonesia was known in corporate
and government circles, yet he never gained widespread notoriety.
In fact, his collection reflected the quiet determination of a
humble man and his passion for Asian art. One sensed a surrogate
family in the hundreds of objects that inhabited the home of the
Dutchman, who never married or had children.

While some buyers may have been acquaintances of Noe's, most
came for a selection of art rarely seen on the Indonesian market.
The novelty factor also became apparent during the sale, as
groups of chatty buyers reveled in their successful bids. But the
charitable nature of the sale -- and no 15-percent buyer's
premium -- was probably a key psychological incentive for the 200
active bidders to dig deeper into their pockets.

Fair play

Some of the entries in the catalog could have been more
detailed to avoid confusion about why, for example, a set of East
Javanese terracotta heads from the 15th century were estimated at
$60-120. The fact that most believed them to be copies, however,
didn't stop someone from paying $950.

But in general, the sale's success revealed a renewed
confidence in the market. Christie's imprimatur and sober
estimates based on objective price references allowed for a
certain peace of mind. Dealers lost the upper-hand to
transparency and international demand, though some of the
ceramics and porcelain may have owed their generous prices to the
collaboration of dealers trying to protect their market.

As Christie's expert in Southeast Asian works of art, Hugo
Kreijger, explained, the arrival of outside expertise brings more
knowledge to a market generally dominated by dealers and
galleries.

"The precedent has been set. What remains is a move on the
part of the Indonesian government to simplify export licensing
procedures and other regulations which remain obstacles to the
major auction houses."

Numerous visitors to the Noe estate reportedly agreed,
expressing their interest in consigning possessions to auction.
If the sale results are any indication, more will consider this
avenue in the future.

Prospects

To prevent the loss of further tax revenues to places such as
Singapore, where Christie's holds two sales of Southeast Asian
art every year, the Indonesian government is trying to create a
more hospitable climate for international auction houses.

According to new State Receivership Agency regulations passed
last January, foreign companies may now set up wholly-owned
private auction houses provided they are incorporated in
Indonesia as a limited liability firm or a cooperative with a
paid-up capital of Rp 1 billion (US$433,000). Private auction
houses will also be required to submit 1.45 percent of the hammer
price of movable assets and 2.275 percent of fixed assets to the
government, in addition to income taxes.

Buyers and sellers at auction will remain subject to existing
tax regulations. Apart from the auction house commissions, which
can add up to 15% to the hammer price, buyers will be responsible
for a value added tax.

During the sale, fears that national patrimony would be
auctioned off to international buyers subsided as most Indonesian
objects found Indonesian buyers. And, as Christie's explained
prior to the sale, all monies would be refunded for those objects
denied export licenses -- a fair condition for a country
legitimately trying to protect its heritage, which the Ministry
of Education loosely defines as any indigenous object over 50
years old.

Christie's execution of the Adrian Noe sale was the
culmination of a process started two years ago, when its first
team arrived in Jakarta for a free evaluation day at Erasmus
Huis. The move is paying off. As competition for top collections
between the two major auction houses intensifies in the United
States and Europe, the emerging markets of Asia offer a wealth of
potential buyers and numerous collections waiting to be
unearthed.