In 2016 Poly Auctions, Hong Kong sold Wu Guanzhong's The Zhou Village for HK$236 million — the most valuable oil painting in the Asian Modern and Contemporary category ever sold at an auction. [Photo provided to China Daily]

On a firm footing

At a time when the performances by international heavyweights of the auction industry — Christie's, Sotheby's and Bonhams — do not seem to create much of an upheaval in the local market, Poly Auction Hong Kong made HK$1.245 billion at the last spring auction, a 17-percent growth since their last outing. Their highlight piece in spring 2016, Wu Guanzhong's landscape, The Zhou Village, which masterfully combines both Chinese and modern European sensibilities, was sold for HK$236 million.

Wu Guanzhong landscapes ruled the Chinese auctions in Hong Kong again this year. China Guardian, another auction house with roots in the Chinese mainland now active in the city, sold one for HK$23 million. Their total haul at the end of the 2017 spring auctions was an impressive HK$326 million.

Poly and China Guardian are in the forefront of mainland auction houses that have found a firm footing in the already crowded Hong Kong art market within a short time. Other names in reckoning include Hanhai Auction, Council (Kuangshi), ChengXuan Auctions, HuaChen Auctions, Sungari International Auction, etc. Gary Yee, who founded a local auction house some years back but has since moved on to run a consultancy that helps auction houses develop marketing strategies, says more "medium-sized" auction houses from the mainland and Hong Kong keep opening in the city and for all of them to coexist in a small space, it is necessary to develop niche interests, and encourage clients to look beyond the familiar fare.

"I introduced Song Dynasty (960-1279) ceramics as a specialized category to the Hong Kong market in 2013," says Yee. "Now we are working with different auction houses to introduce Chinese archaic bronzes and ancient Silk Road art."

Silk Road seems to be the new buzz word in Hong Kong's auction scene, inspired, it might be assumed, at least in part, by the President Xi Jinping's call to revive the ancient trade route connecting China all the way to Central Asia and Europe around the Mediterranean Sea. Nicholas Wilson, who heads the Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Department at China Guardian Hong Kong, mentions his company hosted a symposium earlier in 2017 "with the idea of promoting art that passed through the ancient Silk Road".

Among the merchandize that could have travelled down that road were the Gandhara-style Buddha sculptures with Greco-Roman features that flourished in the 1st and 2nd century in regions that are now in Pakistan and Afghanistan. At China Guardian's spring sales in late May, Wilson sourced a few rather rare specimens of Gandhara art, including a 2nd century panel carved in black schist, showing the death and funeral of the Buddha.

"Getting younger buyers on board has been a bit of a challenge," said Wilson. "But we've been trying to address that, educate newer buyers, show them that these pieces can be quite worthwhile even in a contemporary setting, that they are really interesting historical pieces."