Chinese art takes long march home from US museums
Works amassed by America’s Gilded Age tycoons are returning to Chinese hands as wealthy collectors reshape a centuries-old art trade
Christie’s auctioneer Rupert Banner leans forward with practised showmanship as bidding stalls on a rare Yongzheng bowl near New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. He pauses as if willing offers from thin air, scanning dozens of in-person buyers and phone banks connecting with China, London, Texas.
It will be a bad look if the frenzy abates for this delicate peach-decorated bowl highlighted on Christie’s glossy Chinese sale catalogue and online advertising. But bidding soon resumes with a realised price of US$2.05 million, the sale’s top porcelain result.
