Last Updated: April 18, 2007 21:07 EDT
By Lucy Birmingham Fujii
April 19 (Bloomberg) -- A Hisashi Tenmyouya painting sold at Tokyo's contemporary art sale at the weekend for 16.5 million yen ($139,000), an elevenfold gain for the work in three years and a sign Japan's long-dormant art market may be catching up.
``Nue'' was the top lot at Shinwa Art Auction's April 14 sale, which took a record 183 million yen in feverish bidding. The event followed last week's Art Fair Tokyo 2007, Japan's biggest art fair, where sales tripled to 1 billion yen from the previous event in 2005.
``I couldn't believe it,'' said Sueo Mizuma, owner of Mizuma Gallery, who sold the Tenmyouya work in 2004 to a collector for 150,000 yen. ``Tokyo art fever has just started.''
Prices of modern and contemporary art in Japan are still a fraction of those in the West and trail the increases in China in the past five years. Earlier this month, Sotheby's sold Xu Beihong's 1939 painting ``Put Down Your Whip'' for a record HK$72 million ($9.2 million) in Hong Kong. At the Maastricht, Netherlands, antiques and art fair, Tefaf, in March, a Chinese bronze tapir sold for $12 million.
At the Tokyo fair, bigger sales included a Cy Twombly drawing for 30 million yen; a Cai Guo Qiang work for 6 million yen from Gallery Cellar in Nagoya and a Jiro Yoshihara painting valued at 8 million yen from Shihoudou Gallery in Osaka.
``I didn't get what they're valued abroad, but there's nothing I can do about that,'' said Shihoudou owner Kanetaka Suzuki. ``I'm happy with what I got.''
The 98 exhibitors at the Tokyo International Forum showed 2,500 pieces of contemporary and modern works, installations, antiques, traditional Japanese nihonga, (mineral watercolors), sculpture, ceramics and chinaware, by some 600 artists.
Art Revival
About 32,000 people visited the April 9-12 show, revived in 2005 after recession shuttered its predecessor, the Nippon International Contemporary Art Fair, in 2003.
There was none of the glitter and glam seen at top fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach, where as many as 100 private jets, fleets of luxury cars, and lavish parties punctuate the frenzy of sales. In Tokyo, Akie Abe, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and local celebrities jostled in the cramped 3,000 square meter space. Artist Takashi Murakami attended the preview.
Some exhibitors dressed in colorful Kimonos and guests were offered traditional bowls of green tea from tea masters. The sedate atmosphere did not extend to the buying.
``We sold almost everything,'' said Masami Shiraishi, owner of SCAI the Bathhouse gallery, whose sales included a Julian Opie lightbox for 10 million yen. ``I have a big hope that the art market here will get stronger. Word will spread.''
Monster Dung
From Mizuma Gallery's booth issued loud torrents of Makoto Aida's video showing the creation of his ``Jomon Shiki Kaiju no Unko'' (Jomon Period Monster Dung) installation. Video, placard, photos and T-shirt went to one buyer for 3 million yen.
In some cases, the fair offered better bargains than the auction. MEM Gallery sold a Tomoko Sawada photo collage for 1.1 million yen. A similar work from the same series by the artist went at the auction for 1.4 million yen.
Many fair exhibitors showed classic and modern nihonga scrolls and screens. A Keishi Takashima nihonga painting sold for 5.6 million yen at Gallery Eginu. Beautiful Noh masks at Tannaka Gallery went for up to 1.5 million yen. An antique Noh costume sold for 4.5 million yen.
Ming Vase
Ceramics and chinaware also sold well. At T. Edo Inouye & Son Oriental Art, a late-17th century Nabeshima-ware dish fetched 1.8 million yen, while a small Chinese Ming vase went for 5 million yen.
``I'm hoping the fair becomes more open to international galleries,'' said owner Yukichi Inouye. ``We want to be a center of Asia for art fairs.''
Overseas interest is stirring. Mitochu Koeki Co. sold out of the contemporary ceramics of Amsterdam-based solo artist Wouter Dam for prices ranging from 350,000 to 600,000 yen. Gallery Bhak from Seoul and Gallery 55 from Shanghai took stands.
American Kara Besher, Director of Tokyo's Maru Gallery sold 12 of her 19 Kenya Kotake paintings, some for $10,000 or more.
``I've noticed more buyers from Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong than in 2005,'' said Besher. ``This may not be as dynamic as many international art fairs but we don't have the history. The Shanghai art fair in November has 10 times more galleries, 10 times more viewers and has been running for 10 more years. Still, a lot of people want to come here to buy Japanese contemporary works. The prices here are much cheaper.''
New Collectors
A new wave of young Japanese collectors was also apparent.
``They are young and casual, in their 20s, 30s and 40s,'' said Misa Shin, director of the fair. ``Many are in banking and there are quite a few younger women.''
With more international collectors looking for reasonably priced art, sales in Japan's market are likely to keep rising.
``I think a small art fair can be very good,'' Jack Tilton, owner of New York's Jack Tilton Gallery, said at the show. ``They just have to work on getting quality young art. There can be a fine line in Asia between kitsch and art.''
(Lucy Birmingham Fujii writes on art for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer on this story: Lucy Birmingham Fujii in Tokyo at lfujii@gol.com .
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