Record CZK 881m spent at Czech art market in 2012

Prague, Feb 19 (CTK) - Collectors and investors spent record 881 million crowns in total at art auctions in the Czech Republic in 2012, representatives of the Artplus.cz portal told reporters Tuesday, presenting their yearbook of art auctions sales.

The 2012 turnover at art auctions was 17 percent higher than the previous record from 2009, and 36 percent higher than in 2011.

Collectors spent a total of 200 million crowns on the ten most expensive works of art at Czech auctions in 2012, while the year before the sum was less than 100 million.

A total of 138 paintings and sculptures were sold for over one million crowns each last year, according to the Artplus.cz yearbook of the 2012 art auction market results, including the auction surcharge.

According to experts, the Czech auction market has become more cultivated. Collectors are selective and they are seeking high-quality artifacts even among the works by famous artists. They also use expert advice and are more trained in the art field themselves, too.

Cooperation between gallery owners and antiquaries has also intensified, Robert Meckovsky said.

Some 25,000 items are annually offered at Czech auctions and over 10,000 are sold, Jan Skrivanek said, adding that the auction success rate was 41 percent last year.

Works for over one million crowns each make up 61 percent of the turnover.

Ten percent of the most expensive works of art sold at Czech auctions make up 90 percent of the turnover, he added.

In 2012, record high prices were paid at Czech auctions for works by Czech-born artists Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957) and Emil Filla (1882-1953) and for Chinese art.

The most expensive painting was The Shape of Blue by Kupka from 1913. It was sold to a Russian-speaking collector for 55.75 million crowns in Prague in April 2012, which is a record high auction price paid for a Czech work of art not only in the Czech Republic but also in the world. Including the auction surcharge, the painting cost 57.42 million crowns.

It has been the highest price paid for a Czech work of art paid not only in the Czech Republic but also in the world.

However, the auction result might be frustrated by the fact that the Czech state has definitively refused to lift the heritage protection status from the painting, Skrivanek said.

Besides, more and more collectors are interested in Chinese, and generally Asian, art at Czech auctions.

Two Chinese artifacts are also listed in the top ten at Czech auctions in 2012.

While in 2011, the Asian art turnover was some 30 million crowns, last year it amounted to over 120 million.

In the past ten years, collectors spent some 5.4 billion crowns at Czech auctions and some 750 works of art were sold for over one million crowns each.