THE 'fall' auction season kicks off in Singapore today but the fact that Singapore has no autumn season is of no concern to local auction houses. Given the dismal state of the local industry, nervous auctioneers are crossing their fingers that their sales don't 'fall', literally.

33 Auction tests the waters today with its first evening sale with only 68 lots; it will be followed two days later by Borobudur Auction. On Oct 25, Larasati Auction will do the same.

The auction houses' jittery nerves come on the heels of the lacklustre results of auctions such as those recently held by Auction Channel and newbie Ziani Auction. However, Auction Channel and Ziani relied on either young or emerging contemporary artists which could have attributed to the disappointing outcome.

Both 33 Auction and Borobudur Auction say that they are emphasising Modern Masters - and hope for some of the shine of this week's success with Modern art in Sotheby's Hong Kong auctions to rub off on them.

The star performers in Hong Kong were the Modern Masters on Monday, with frenzied bidding leading to record-breaking prices for Modern Chinese Masters. The frenzy continued on Tuesday with Masters from South-east Asian art, especially Indonesian Masters. For Chinese Modern artists, Li Keran's Tranquil Landscape sold for HK$7.34 million or US$941,000, way past the high estimate of HK$3 million to HK$4.5 million.

Auction record

Sanyu's Lotus et Poissons Rouges commanded HK$36.5 million or US$4.6 million. This is the second highest auction price for Sanyu, and an auction record for a landscape painting by the artist. The price achieved for this rare piece (not seen in public for over half a century) was at once surprising and welcome.

For South-east Asian Masters, Lee Man Fong's Magnificent Horses fetched HK$8.18 million, or around US$1.05 million, three times the high estimate. The other Masters that did well were Affandi and Le Pho.

'The solid sell-through rate of 84.9 per cent highlights the success of the Modern works,' says Dick Lee of Sotheby's Hong Kong. 'The Modern works performed exceptionally well, dominating the top 10. Although blue-chip contemporary artists did well too, the Modern Masters were the ones breaking the records.'

In other words, relying on Modern rather than contemporary or young artists seems to be the way to go in this climate.

Linda Ma of 33 Auction certainly thinks so. She is confident that for this auction, unlike her previous, more than 70 per cent of the works will sell within or exceed estimates.

'The Sotheby's results gave us a boost in confidence and like them, we have good Modern Masters and also high-end contemporary art,' she says.

Holding the auction in the week of ARTSingapore certainly won't hurt, as the auction will tap visitors to the art fair, most of whom would have just experienced a 'high' from the success of the Modern Masters at the Sotheby's auction just days ago.

33 Auction's modern Masters are not Chinese but South-east Asian and Indonesian. A piece by Lee Man Fong is estimated to reach $280,000 to $380,000. Other Masters include a few Affandis and Hendra Gunawan. Ms Ma is also proud to have Indonesia's top contemporary artists, I Nyoman Masriadi. Titled Bima shaving Arjuna's hair, it is estimated at $150,000 to $250,000.

Borobudur Auction, meanwhile, dropped its spring auction in light of the economic climate. But for its fall auction, the auction house is concentrating on good Modern works.

Borobudur's owner John Andreas is clearly happy about the success of the Modern Masters at the Sotheby's. 'The contemporary art is what the press is focusing on and hence it may look like the market hasn't moved,' he says.

'But if you look at the estimates, even the contemporary top tier artists exceeded their estimates, but of course they are nowhere near their peaks. The Modern Masters, however, are not only doing extremely well, they have exceeded their peaks. We are placing a lot of focus on the Masters, less on the contemporary as the prices for the Masters are still going up.'

For the first time, the auction house has introduced a wine auction. 'We will be the first to have a public wine auction, and the wines are directly from France, rare fine wines in the same categories as Sotheby's and Christie's.'

Mr Andreas sounds confident, and he has reasons to be as the wine auction by Sotheby's in Hong Kong also exceeded the top-end estimates.

The Masters from Borobudur Auction consists of a piece by Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres titled The Garden at Sanur. Its estimate is $500,000 to $800,000. 'We are confident it will hit half a million dollars or perhaps exceed it,' says Mr Andreas.

Apart from this piece, a quick flip through the brochure shows that the Masters that Mr Andreas is referring to are like 33 Auction's - Indonesian or South-east Asian Masters, not Chinese.

But despite the 'focus' on Masters, there are quite a few surprisingly highly priced contemporary works. A piece by Liu Wei simply titled Landscape has an estimate of $500,000 to $750,000. Chinese contemporary star Li Shan's Paradise's high-end estimate is a whopping $900,000. The combined value of the art offered by Borobudur and 33 Auction is about $14 million, and quite evenly split between Modern and Contemporary.

Joseph Choe, a serious collector of Chinese and Indonesian contemporary art who was in Hong Kong for the Sotheby's auction agrees that the works will attract buyers who know their art.

'While the general sentiment has been bad in Singapore, the top-tier contemporary artists have maintained their prices,' he says.

A regular on the auction circuit, he is not sure if relying on Masters is a good long-term approach. 'Auction houses are having a really tough time getting good art. It is not easy to get collectors to release their good works in this climate. So they fall back on the Masters, which are like gold - in tough times, buy gold.

'But the Masters appeal to only a certain segment of the demographic of collectors, and that segment is not growing. It is the new, younger collectors who have enlarged the base. They came into the auction scene when the art market started to boom a few years back. Works by Masters are not suitable for them, as they do not live in ornate 'da Vinci' houses. Only contemporary art gives them the kind of kick suitable for their kind of lifestyle. So I am not sure relying on Masters is such a good strategy if you want these or new people to come for the auction.'

Savvy collectors

Mr Choe is not being pessimistic. He thinks for the first part of this year, the speculators have been flushed out. He is also glad that collectors are savvy enough not to bite at the offerings of new auction houses. These auction houses have to a large extent short-circuited the system by going directly to the artists, by-passing the galleries.

'Galleries are crucial to the whole art eco-system. They are the ones who nurture artists and promote them, and eventually put them into auctions when their works are good enough,' he says.

Meanwhile, Frank Veyder of Ziani refuses to be affected by 'trends'. While the first Ziani auction results were not spectacular, he insists that success will come if you know what your focus is. 'We want to be guided by quality. Our subsequent auctions will be targeted at niche markets, with very high quality works on sale. And we are optimistic.'

Christie's, whose auction will be in November, is optimistic as well. 'We have reason to be cautiously confident about the future of the art market and the future of Christie's,' says Andy Foster, president of Christie's Asia.

'The economy has shown signs of recovery, and Asia is forecast to grow and recover. Our international departments continue to deal with an ever-increasing number of wealthy new clients from the emerging markets to add to the established and new clients from Europe and the United States. This new client base will continue to drive our international sales and our regional businesses in Asia, the Middle East and Russia.'

If he's right, then local auction houses can take comfort that fall will not be a season of want for them.