Dealers and auction houses will test demand for Asian antiques and art this week in London with works priced up to 5 million pounds ($8.1 million).
Collectors are being offered everything from a bronze Buddha to jade carvings. Nearly 50 commercial galleries and 17 museums are showing artworks ranging from Islamic to Japanese — spanning 5,000 years — in the 11th annual Asian Art in London, running through Nov. 12. The week also features auctions of  Asian material by Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and Bonhams.
The event comes at a time when losses on the world’s stock markets and contracting economic growth have begun to reduce sales of Asian art. On Sept. 16 at Sotheby’s, New York, a 312-lot auction of Chinese ceramics and works of art found buyers for 56 percent of the material. On Oct. 7, a Christie’s sale of Islamic and Indian art in London had a success rate of 47 percent.
“There’s an air of caution around,” said the Mayfair-based dealer Roger Keverne, a specialist in Chinese art, who this week is offering an 18th-century green jade brushpot priced at 250,000 pounds. “Anything of top quality continues to sell, but there’s definitely been a softening at the lower end.”
During the last five years, competition between Western and Asian collectors pushed up prices for Chinese white jade artifacts and colored 18th-century and 19th-century porcelain by up to 40 percent, said Keverne. (Bloomberg)

Only a few days are left until Paris Photo (13th-16th November), the world’s leading fair in the field of photography, which gathers operators, experts, collectors and people passionate about photography from all over the world. An event created in 1997 by Rick Gadella, a Dutch publisher who managed to bring together at the prestigious Carrousel de Louvre a powerful mix of galleries specialised in contemporary artists who use the camera as their exclusive means of expression. In little time Paris Photo has become the first photographic fair-market in the world, owing to the high quality of its exhibitors, the originality of the concept (a balance between modern, contemporary and photography), its international scope and a discerning and enthusiastic public which is passionate about ancient and contemporary photography.

The 2nd November is anticipated to be a challenging date for San Marco auction house as in the same day it will be holding two auction sessions: paintings by antique masters at 3.30pm and furniture, art objects, sculptures from the apartment of an American gentleman in  Venice and from other customers at 4.30pm. Rare pieces and masterpieces of extraordinary beauty will attract art experts, lovers and antique dealers to Palazzo Giovanelli, venue of the event. 
The 65 paintings put up for auction include canvases by important masters such as Gianbattista Tiepolo, Francesco Bassano,  Francesco Guardi, Antonio Balestra and Jann Richter. Common denominator for many of these works is not only their undisputed prestige, but also a highly deserved six-figure estimated value.

Anish Kapoor is watching an assistant stick tiny trees on an architectural maquette with hairspray.
“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” the sculptor asks. “It’s just the wrong smell for this”.
Kapoor, 54, is setting up an exhibition at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, “Place/No Place: Anish Kapoor in Architecture” (through Nov. 8). There are cavities, concavities, spheres and funnels everywhere, representing works made, in the making, or never made.
The models include Chicago’s stainless-steel “Cloud Gate” sculpture - nicknamed “The Bean” - and the huge, double- ended horn shown at Tate Modern in 2002-3 (”Marsyas”).
Indian-born Kapoor smiles at me amiably. The sleeves of his dressy white shirt are rolled up, and he keeps a close eye on his crew, even when interviewed.
Kapoor keeps busy. He has a show at Berlin’s Deutsche Guggenheim next month (Nov. 30 to Feb. 1), and another in 2009 at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, which won’t be a retrospective. (”I’m still around and working”, he says.) In 2011, he will fill Paris’s 19th-century Grand Palais as Richard Serra and Anselm Kiefer did. “That’s a hard one, let me tell you”,  he says. (Bloomberg)

The contemporary Asian art fair, ARTSingapore 2008 (10th-13th October), has firmly established its name in the art world, attracting more than 15,000 art lovers from all over the world. 110 galleries coming from 16 different countries presented artworks that had a net worth of around SGD$80 million (US$55 million).
The galleries that saw good responses from Southeast Asia included The Drawing Room (Philippines), which surpassed last year’s sales, Zola Zulu from Indonesia, which sold most of their works and Singapore galleries Art Seasons, Drawing Gallery, Linda Gallery and Yisulang.
Galleries from Korea and Japan such as Gallery Tsubaki and Megumi Ogita did well, with Korean gallery Leehwaik Gallery selling a Kim Dong Yoo painting for almost US$300,000. Indian galleries were also not left out with Gallery 7 selling a TV Santosh artwork for US$73,000.
Chen Shen Po, the fair organizer, said, “Most visitors expressed that the quality of the artworks displayed was higher this year. Many participants also enjoyed the “Art Conversations,” with the interesting discussions and views from our international group of speakers and panelists. With the recent economic environment, gallery owners are seeking for participation in such events to excite the buyers and encourage their continued interest in the arts. Many galleries have already applied for their booths to return next year at ARTSingapore 2009.”

Hirst, who topped the list in 2005, retakes the top spot after a recent sale of his work which made £111m.
The magazine said Hirst - famous for his animals preserved in formaldehyde - “overshadowed and outshone” in an art market shaken by the credit crunch.
Mysterious graffiti artist Banksy made the the list at 63 - the first street artist to do so.
The list also includes art collectors, gallery curators and institutions active in the world of art.
Financial clout
Kathy Halbreich, an associate director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, becomes the first woman to make the top 10 in her own right.
Russian billionaire and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich also enters the list at 54 as a collector of art.
Figures from China and India’s art worlds have made progress this year, with Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang rising 30 places to 69.
Earlier this year, he became the first Chinese artist to stage a solo exhibition at New York’s Guggenheim museum.
Hirst’s star has risen on the list in the last two years - in 2006 he was outside the top 10, and moved up to sixth place last year.
Another well-known name, collector Charles Saatchi, has slipped from seven in 2007 to 14.
He topped the first power list, which was published in 2002.
Art figures are measured on a number of criteria including financial clout, influence on the international stage and activity in the past year. (BBC NEWS)

Christie’s week at Rockefeller Plaza in New York dedicated to Oriental art ended successfully. From 15th to 18th September all types of precious works from the lands of the rising sun were auctioned, and they seem to have been very appreciated. The most consistent takings were achieved by the Chinese ceramics and works of art sector, with 246 lots totalling 13,195,000 dollars.