Sotheby's sees Asia art shrugging off market gloom

HONG KONG, Feb 22 (Reuters Life!) - Auction house Sotheby's expects to sell HK$1.3 billion ($167 million) worth of Asian art at its upcoming spring sales in Hong Kong, downplaying concerns over a correction in Asian art prices amid global market turmoil.

The head of Sotheby's in Asia shrugged off worries over the credit crisis and a possible U.S. recession, saying he expected valuations for Asian art to remain strong, given art's allure as a refuge at times of market gloom.

"Our past experience tells us that in fact the general financial markets and the art market go in different directions," Kevin Ching, Sotheby's Asia Chief Executive Officer told Reuters.

"The spring sales should remain very strong ... it will be a record estimate in Hong Kong," Ching added, referring to the Chinese contemporary and ink-brush paintings, ceramics, jewelry and watches to be hammered off.

The sales from April 8-11 could be the first major opportunity for buyers to gauge demand and sentiment in the Asian art market since global equity markets started to wobble.

Demand for top-tier Western art appears strong, after booming auctions of Impressionist and Modern art by Sotheby's and Christie's in London earlier this month.

Among the highlights of Sotheby's Asia sale are the works of many red-hot Chinese contemporary artists including Yue Minjun and Liu Xiaodong, whose politically charged painting "Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats", is expected to fetch $7 million.

The rare political work by Liu juxtaposes nine paired images of soldiers from Taiwan and China in green uniforms, symbolizing fraught relations between the two sides.

Taiwanese artist Guo Bochuan's 1946 "The Forbidden City", a Renoir-influenced rendering of the monumental residence of Beijing's imperial rulers, was expected to fetch $5 million.