Chinese burn

A kind of madness has taken grip of the art market. It seems that the world’s super-rich have decided that money has no value — or at least that it has a value different from that understood by the rest of us. Just this month, one of Alma Tadema’s fanciful biblical epics was sold for an incredible $36 million (previous auction record $2.8 million), a Modigliani changed hands at $69 million (previous record $31 million), while a now famous porcelain vase made for the Emperor Qianlong, which turned up in a bungalow in Pinner, realised more than £53 million — a world auction record for any Chinese work of art.

Of all global art markets, none is more feverish than that of Chinese art. So rapidly is it rising for the most desirable works that even yesterday’s prices are rendered meaningless. A new auction record for Chinese porcelain had only been set last month when, in her latest record-breaking bid, business magnate Alice Cheng had paid $18.2 million for a double gourd vase also made for the Qianlong Emperor.

That price in turn transformed the cover piece of Giuseppe Eskenazi’s catalogue marking his 50 years in business into the snip of Asia Week in London. Between the publication of the catalogue in late September and the opening of the exhibition earlier this month, the world’s most respected dealer in Chinese art found that his exceedingly rare Qing puce-enamelled dragon vase was worth far, far more than its $25 million price tag.

All three vases illustrate the seismic shift in taste that has transformed the market in recent years. Traditionally, it was the purity and simplicity of the wares of the Song dynasty that found most favour in both East and West.