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The past reduced to price tag for 1 old vase
By Wan Lixin |
November 18, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AN 18th-century Chinese vase stumbled upon in the "dusty attic" of a British family's home was auctioned last week in London for US$69.5 million. Adding the buyer's premium and tax, the total came to US$85.9 million.
The imperial, double-walled, reticulated vase with a six-character reign-mark became the most expensive work of Chinese art ever sold at auction anywhere in the world.
The price shocked many people, including the small suburban auction house, Bainbridge's.
The poor auctioneer was so excited, that he broke the hammer.
Prior to this, only art houses like Sotheby's and Christie's could push sales prices to a tune of tens of millions of dollars.
The price, about 40 or 50 times the estimated price before the auction, beat the wildest imagination. But it does not surprise we Chinese.
Of course, the mysterious buyer came from Beijing.
Although the country bestows almost instant riches on some of its favored citizens, the country fails to keep up in supplying them sufficient luxury items on which to spend that wealth.
Sometimes people are really scratching their heads to come up with a way to relieve themselves of a portion of that cumbersome burden of wealth.
One would not be aware of this torture of choice if one were not cognizant of how easily money can be made on Chinese coal, real estate, state assets, projects, and good guanxi.
But some people tend to see more in this awesome purchase at auction, for instance, patriotism.
According to the editor of a British antiques magazine, the vase could have been among the treasures looted by British troops when they sacked the imperial palaces in Beijing during the second Opium War (1856-1860).
In March 2009, two rare zodiac bronzes in the shape of a rabbit's and a rat's head fetched a record price at auction. They had adorned a water clock fountain in an imperial garden. A Chinese collector bid US$40.4 million, but then refused to pay, saying he wanted to sabotage the auction of national treasures.
Concerning the Qianlong vase, Xie Chensheng, honorary chairman of the China Relics Association, finds the price totally incomprehensible.
One art connoisseur observed that China's real art pieces were invariably crafted by highly creative artists far from the demands of imperial influence, particularly when they were not prosperous.
From that viewpoint, the vase's value is highly limited.
"I have always been of the view that the imperative now is to protect the relics still within China and prevent them from being smuggled overseas, rather than buying stolen artifacts back," Xie said.
He called the vase purchase "an act of utter folly," for such a sum, properly spent, could help protect a host of more valuable relics from being smuggled abroad.
Xie said in the past three decades, the number of artifacts flowing overseas is staggering.
But businessmen are businessmen. They never go for a losing deal.
Xie believed the real motive of such an abnormally high auction price is to foster speculation in the art market.
Such an astronomical price also sends a strong signal to dealers in Chinese antiquities - grave robbers, smugglers - to work harder.
As one Internet user commented: The whopping price will whet the appetite of bandits (domestic and overseas)!
Experts also hinted that the huge expenditure on art might be a channel for money laundering.
Real treasure
But our fascination with antiquity, whether at home or abroad, does not stem from a real affinity for China's past, which is often perceived in a negative light, and languishes unappreciated. This, however, is seldom voiced.
We still talk of Confucian concepts of xiao (filial piety), ren (humanity), and yi (loyalty ), but always critically.
We are witnessing a wholesale elimination of any vestiges of our past, ideologically and physically.
Architecturally, even fairly recent buildings are being razed to make way for Westernized high-rises, on the assumption that traditional Chinese lifestyle is backward and uncivilized.
We deplore the tearing down of Beijing's ancient city walls, but large-scale pulverizing of the last hutong and siheyuan (four-sided courtyards) is still going on.
As Feng Jicai, writer and preservationist, commented in Wednesday's Wenhui Daily, "More than 600 Chinese cities rich in diversity have been reduced to a thin facade of shining shallowness."
As a result, Feng wrote, the sediment of history is depleted, memory suspended, uniqueness destroyed, and the cultural life of cities uprooted.
Rural roots
More disastrous, when "old cities" ("old" is automatically perceived as pejorative) are completely eliminated, greedy eyes are cast to villages for urban expansion.
Rural China, representing the quintessential Chinese lifestyle, is being razed and plundered, as peasants are beaten or driven upstairs.
Greedy local governments, in cahoots with property developers, crave their land for developments.
The rare exceptions are those that can be repackaged as tourist attractions in hopes of commercial exploitation.
When real historical relics are destroyed, fabrications ensue.
Coal-rich Datong in Shanxi Province is reportedly going to rebuild the city in accordance with imperial style, resplendent with city wall and palaces, in a bid to turn the city into a tourist mecca in the post-industrial era.
Some Chinese libraries have spent fortunes to buy "rare books" smuggled overseas, but clearly are far less interested in promoting the wisdom, attitudes and outlook contained in Confucius' Analects.
When China's past is reduced to a physical entity, to a few vases, it satisfies the Western admiration for the exotic, while the price tag appeals to our vanity.
When culture and ideas are reduced to a price, we are in for the great age idealized as "the end of history."
The imperial, double-walled, reticulated vase with a six-character reign-mark became the most expensive work of Chinese art ever sold at auction anywhere in the world.
The price shocked many people, including the small suburban auction house, Bainbridge's.
The poor auctioneer was so excited, that he broke the hammer.
Prior to this, only art houses like Sotheby's and Christie's could push sales prices to a tune of tens of millions of dollars.
The price, about 40 or 50 times the estimated price before the auction, beat the wildest imagination. But it does not surprise we Chinese.
Of course, the mysterious buyer came from Beijing.
Although the country bestows almost instant riches on some of its favored citizens, the country fails to keep up in supplying them sufficient luxury items on which to spend that wealth.
Sometimes people are really scratching their heads to come up with a way to relieve themselves of a portion of that cumbersome burden of wealth.
One would not be aware of this torture of choice if one were not cognizant of how easily money can be made on Chinese coal, real estate, state assets, projects, and good guanxi.
But some people tend to see more in this awesome purchase at auction, for instance, patriotism.
According to the editor of a British antiques magazine, the vase could have been among the treasures looted by British troops when they sacked the imperial palaces in Beijing during the second Opium War (1856-1860).
In March 2009, two rare zodiac bronzes in the shape of a rabbit's and a rat's head fetched a record price at auction. They had adorned a water clock fountain in an imperial garden. A Chinese collector bid US$40.4 million, but then refused to pay, saying he wanted to sabotage the auction of national treasures.
Concerning the Qianlong vase, Xie Chensheng, honorary chairman of the China Relics Association, finds the price totally incomprehensible.
One art connoisseur observed that China's real art pieces were invariably crafted by highly creative artists far from the demands of imperial influence, particularly when they were not prosperous.
From that viewpoint, the vase's value is highly limited.
"I have always been of the view that the imperative now is to protect the relics still within China and prevent them from being smuggled overseas, rather than buying stolen artifacts back," Xie said.
He called the vase purchase "an act of utter folly," for such a sum, properly spent, could help protect a host of more valuable relics from being smuggled abroad.
Xie said in the past three decades, the number of artifacts flowing overseas is staggering.
But businessmen are businessmen. They never go for a losing deal.
Xie believed the real motive of such an abnormally high auction price is to foster speculation in the art market.
Such an astronomical price also sends a strong signal to dealers in Chinese antiquities - grave robbers, smugglers - to work harder.
As one Internet user commented: The whopping price will whet the appetite of bandits (domestic and overseas)!
Experts also hinted that the huge expenditure on art might be a channel for money laundering.
Real treasure
But our fascination with antiquity, whether at home or abroad, does not stem from a real affinity for China's past, which is often perceived in a negative light, and languishes unappreciated. This, however, is seldom voiced.
We still talk of Confucian concepts of xiao (filial piety), ren (humanity), and yi (loyalty ), but always critically.
We are witnessing a wholesale elimination of any vestiges of our past, ideologically and physically.
Architecturally, even fairly recent buildings are being razed to make way for Westernized high-rises, on the assumption that traditional Chinese lifestyle is backward and uncivilized.
We deplore the tearing down of Beijing's ancient city walls, but large-scale pulverizing of the last hutong and siheyuan (four-sided courtyards) is still going on.
As Feng Jicai, writer and preservationist, commented in Wednesday's Wenhui Daily, "More than 600 Chinese cities rich in diversity have been reduced to a thin facade of shining shallowness."
As a result, Feng wrote, the sediment of history is depleted, memory suspended, uniqueness destroyed, and the cultural life of cities uprooted.
Rural roots
More disastrous, when "old cities" ("old" is automatically perceived as pejorative) are completely eliminated, greedy eyes are cast to villages for urban expansion.
Rural China, representing the quintessential Chinese lifestyle, is being razed and plundered, as peasants are beaten or driven upstairs.
Greedy local governments, in cahoots with property developers, crave their land for developments.
The rare exceptions are those that can be repackaged as tourist attractions in hopes of commercial exploitation.
When real historical relics are destroyed, fabrications ensue.
Coal-rich Datong in Shanxi Province is reportedly going to rebuild the city in accordance with imperial style, resplendent with city wall and palaces, in a bid to turn the city into a tourist mecca in the post-industrial era.
Some Chinese libraries have spent fortunes to buy "rare books" smuggled overseas, but clearly are far less interested in promoting the wisdom, attitudes and outlook contained in Confucius' Analects.
When China's past is reduced to a physical entity, to a few vases, it satisfies the Western admiration for the exotic, while the price tag appeals to our vanity.
When culture and ideas are reduced to a price, we are in for the great age idealized as "the end of history."
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