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.