Spies' work gets top bid at auction

Spies' work gets top bid at auction

Heather Paterson, Associated Press, Singapore

Art lovers from Singapore, Indonesia and Europe spent S$11.5 million (US$6.53 million) on Southeast Asian paintings over the weekend.

Two works by German artist Walter Spies, depicting rural life in Bali, took the top prices at the Sunday auctions.

Spies' 1929 work Balinese Legend pulled in S$1.55 million at a Sotheby's auction, Sotheby's Asian art specialist Mok Kim Chuan said Monday.

A View from Above, completed in 1934, sold for S$1.88 million, said Carolyn Ortega, a publicist for London-based auction house Christie's.

Mok said the salesroom at a Singapore hotel was packed even though the Christie's auction was held on the same day at another hotel.

"Competition is keen on pre-war Indonesian paintings," said Mok.

The buyers did not seem worried by the global economic downturn and the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the United States, Mok said.

Singapore has already fallen into a recession, which the government says will continue into next year.

Mok said most buyers were art lovers, rather than investors, who took the opportunity to grab the works by Spies as they rarely appeared in auctions.

"Everyone knows there are less than 60 Spies' works in the world and more than half are in private collections so it will be a long time until we see them," said Mok.

A record was set for the most money paid at a Sotheby's auction for a work by Indonesian artist Widayat. His Monkeys at the Sanctuary sold for S$116,250, said Mok.

Neither auction house would reveal who bought the works by Spies.

Spies, a Russian-born German painter and musician, lived and worked in Bali between the 1920s and World War II. He studied and promoted the Indonesian island's art.