In the 2012 spring auction at Christie’s Hong Kong, artist Zeng Fanzhi’s 2000 painting “Fly” sold for 37.62 million Hong Kong dollars. During the fall auctions by Christie’s Hong Kong in the same year, his 1999 work “Mask Series” sold for 22.5 million Hong Kong dollars, scoring both works a place in his “Top Ten” list. Experts say that the price of his works has reached astronomic heights, but believe that it has still yet to reach its peak – the amount of growth in his works’ future is in the hands of the rich, and the hands of western collectors.

Status Quo

“Mask Series” Still Worth Millions

Based on Artron’s currently incomplete statistics, up until 2012’s fall auction, Zeng Fanzhi has auctioned 432 items with a successful auction rate of 89.35%, with transactions totaling 1.44 billion RMB. In the “Top Ten Highest Valued Items” list, “Mask Series” accounts for more than 6, making it clear that it is the main buttress sustaining Zeng Fanzhi’s high valued auctions.

According to collector Li Su Qiao, three of Zeng Fanzhi’s important works were featured in the 2011 Beijing Poly Ullens specialty auction, all of which were alternately collected by He Ju Xing and Yu De Yao. Among these was second place “#3 of Series A: Wedding”, which sold for 40.25 million RMB, causing another stir after the contemporary arts market bubble burst. Garden of Serenity Contemporary Art Museum of Beijing and collector Li Bing reveals that, looking at the primary market, all of Zeng Fanzhi’s pieces were sold out 45 minutes after the opening of his solo exhibition in London. Similarly, during Zhang Xiaogang’s solo exhibition in Pace Beijing, his works were sold out before the exhibition had even begun. This phenomenon indicates that, even though the market is in a slump, excellent artists will still perform well. Li Bing emphasizes that today’s market is slowly squeezing out people whose interests are purely opportunistic, as relying on art making short-term reappearances is highly unrealistic. Thus, leaving just a portion of collectors whose intentions for art are pure will help heal the market.

Analysis

Western Forces Provide Reassurance

According to Li Su Qiao, most of Zeng Fanzhi’s important early period works currently circulating the market are being provided by Johnson Chang, ShanghART, and the artist himself. He points out that early on, Zeng Fanzhi’s works was welcomed more readily in the western market. Currently, a portion of these works have flowed back into the hands of Chinese collectors, but the other portion is still clutched in the grasp of important western collectors. Even with the slowdown in today’s art market, the phenomenon of high-value transactions still occurs. By his analysis, this is a sign that western investors still believe that Zeng Fanzhi’s market still has a lot of leeway. Even though the sale of one of Zeng Fanzhi’s works for a whopping 75.37 million Hong Kong dollars broke the sales record in the Chinese contemporary art market, it did not break his own records.

Li Su Qiao attributes the artist’s success in the art market to three important reasons. First, the west is optimistic about the future development of China’s economy, believing that there exists the possibility of Zeng Fanzhi’s works flowing back. Second, Zeng Fanzhi’s collaboration with renowned international galleries such as Gagosian has played a positive role, whether it is in the primary or secondary market. Finally, the support of important collectors, with Pino leading the way, gives Zeng Fanzhi’s works unimaginably spacious room for appreciation, inadvertently providing his art assurance, and a sense of security to investors.

Predictions

New Works Still Awaiting Market Assessments

Amongst Zeng Fanzhi’s “Top Ten” works are some of his new works – this is due to the fact that new works have yet to face new evaluations. Li Su Qiao points out that Zeng Fanzhi is one of a small number of Chinese artists who operates as a western star. Even though the artist’s works have reached stratospheric values, Li Su Qiao believes that the future of his market will ultimately be decided by the financial capabilities of the rich segment of the population, and their aesthetic inclinations. If this segment of the populations continues to expand, then Zeng Fanzhi’s works will become a “standard” of collections by rich families. In contrast, the amount of space in the Chinese art market for Zeng Fanzhi will be extremely limited.

In regards to values being “astronomical”, Li Bing does not agree. “Supposedly, one piece by Zeng Fanzhi at Gagosian’s gallery has a price tag of 1 million pounds.” He emphasizes that he “does not believe this price is high at all. We cannot compare it with the condition of our country and our national income. For an artist who rose out of a population of 1.3 billion people, a price tag of 1 million pounds on the international art market is far from enough.” Because of this, Li Bing firmly believes that the value of Zeng Fanzhi’s works will not fall, only rise. He also mentions that the approval of the “aristocratic” circle, led by Pino, is enough to bolster the confidence of entire crowd of wealthy individuals for Zeng Fanzhi’s personal market.

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