Learning Curve for New Sotheby's Asia CEO

An article today from Agence France-Presse, quoting Kevin Ching, incoming CEO of Sotheby's Asia, contained so many puzzling "did he really say that?" moments that we can only hope it's the reporter, not Ching, who was confused.

First head-scratcher:

Kevin Ching says one of his aims as the newly-appointed chairman of Sotheby's in Asia is to see the first Asian bid for a European Impressionist piece.

This might come as a shock to the Japanese.

Second head-scratcher, presented as a direct quote from Ching:

In the contemporary market, the majority of buyers are western, not Chinese....Much of modern Chinese art employs the sort of communist imagery and Cultural Revolution imagery that western buyers are fascinated by but I think Chinese buyers find commonplace.

This might well come as a shock to Sotheby's itself, which reported that an overwhelming majority, 76%, of buyers for its record-breaking Apr. 7 contemporary Chinese art sale in Hong Kong were Asian, not western. And the majority of buyers were Chinese: 28.7% from Hong Kong; 26.3% from Taiwan, 12% from the People's Republic of China. What's more, the underbidder for Xu Beihong's "Put Down Your Whip," which at $9.2 million set an auction record for any Chinese painting, was also Chinese---a Shanghai-based art dealer and collector, Hua Yuzhou, who bid for the painting on behalf of another Chinese buyer, according to a report by Le-Min Lim of Bloomberg. (The winning bidder was anonymous.)

Third head-scratcher, again presented as a direct quote from Ching:

As Chinese people have become richer I think they have taken to associating themselves with China's powerful past, so they buy up the artifacts of the imperial periods. I wouldn't say this is the overriding reason they buy---they buy mostly as investments---but it is certainly in the back of their minds.

This may or may not be true, but it's impolitic, at best, for the new guy on the Asian art block to say that Chinese buyers are in it not for the love but mostly for the money.

Ching is new to the art trade: He came to Sotheby's in July from Dickson Concepts (International) Limited, a Hong Kong-based luxury goods group. He assumes his CEO post at Sotheby's Asia this month. The staff e-mail last May announcing his arrival said he would "be learning our business."

Maybe he's still learning.