# Arie Smit artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/arie-smit/
Profile generated: 2026-05-04T04:58:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1916-04-15
- Death date: 2016-03-23
- Nationality: Dutch, Indonesian
- Movements: Poetic Realism, Balinese modern art
- Common media: oil painting, graphic design, lithography

## About Arie Smit

Arie Smit (1916–2016), born Adrianus Wilhelmus Smit in Zaandam, the Netherlands, was a painter, graphic artist, and educator who became one of the most recognizable European-born artists working in Indonesia. He studied graphic design at the Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam before moving to the Dutch East Indies. After Indonesian independence, he took Indonesian citizenship in 1950 and taught graphic arts and lithography at the Institut Teknologi Bandung. Smit later settled on Bali, where he lived and worked for most of his life. His vibrant, color-rich depictions of Balinese landscapes and village life — often associated with a style critics have called poetic realism — made his work popular with collectors of Southeast Asian modern art worldwide. He died in Denpasar, Bali, in 2016 at the age of 99.

## Common works and media

Arie Smit is best known for oil paintings of Balinese landscapes and village life, characterized by bold color and stylized forms. He also produced works on paper, lithographs, and other graphic prints. Subject matter frequently includes tropical scenery, rice terraces, temple compounds, market scenes, and figures in traditional Balinese dress. His graphic design background informed a strong compositional sense visible across media.

## Market and appraisal context

Arie Smit has a deep and well-documented secondary market. Appraisily's auction-record index traces 400 lots offered between September 2001 and May 2026, with 265 carrying a realized price. The artist is traded predominantly through Southeast Asian and European salerooms. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams anchor the blue-chip tier, while regional specialists — 33 Auction (Singapore), Larasati Auctioneers (Singapore/Bali), Sidharta Auctioneer (Jakarta), Global Auction (Singapore), and Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers (Malaysia) — handle the bulk of volume. Dutch houses (Zeeuws Veilinghuis, Venduehuis der Notarissen), German houses (Koller Auctions, Lempertz, Nagel Auction, Setdart), and Australian houses (Deutscher and Hackett, Leonard Joel) reflect the artist's Dutch heritage and Bali-based career. Realized prices span a wide band: the interquartile range runs from approximately 5,000 (p25) to 212,500 (p75) in mixed currencies, with a median near 22,000. Recent comparable lots reinforce this dispersion — a large oil on canvas ('Tangkolak') sold at Christie's Hong Kong for 825,500 HKD (March 2026), while a mixed-media work on paper ('Coastal View,' 1990) realized just 375 EUR at Setdart (April 2026). Mid-range Balinese landscape and village-scene oils typically trade between 5,000 and 75,000 SGD/HKD at regional salerooms. Liquidity remains healthy: 16 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months (down from 22 the year prior), suggesting a modest contraction but continued collector demand.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Arie Smit has a deep and well-documented secondary market. Appraisily's auction-record index traces 400 lots offered between September 2001 and May 2026, with 265 carrying a realized price. The artist is traded predominantly through Southeast Asian and European salerooms. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams anchor the blue-chip tier, while regional specialists — 33 Auction (Singapore), Larasati Auctioneers (Singapore/Bali), Sidharta Auctioneer (Jakarta), Global Auction (Singapore), and Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers (Malaysia) — handle the bulk of volume. Dutch houses (Zeeuws Veilinghuis, Venduehuis der Notarissen), German houses (Koller Auctions, Lempertz, Nagel Auction, Setdart), and Australian houses (Deutscher and Hackett, Leonard Joel) reflect the artist's Dutch heritage and Bali-based career. Realized prices span a wide band: the interquartile range runs from approximately 5,000 (p25) to 212,500 (p75) in mixed currencies, with a median near 22,000. Recent comparable lots reinforce this dispersion — a large oil on canvas ('Tangkolak') sold at Christie's Hong Kong for 825,500 HKD (March 2026), while a mixed-media work on paper ('Coastal View,' 1990) realized just 375 EUR at Setdart (April 2026). Mid-range Balinese landscape and village-scene oils typically trade between 5,000 and 75,000 SGD/HKD at regional salerooms. Liquidity remains healthy: 16 lots appeared in the trailing 12 months (down from 22 the year prior), suggesting a modest contraction but continued collector demand.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily would use these 400 auction records as a comparable-sale database, filtered by medium, dimensions, subject, date of execution, and condition to bracket an estimate. Key inputs for an accurate appraisal include: (1) high-resolution photographs showing signature, brushwork, and surface condition; (2) exact dimensions and support type (oil on canvas vs. mixed media on paper vs. lithograph); (3) date of execution or period clues — Smit's career exceeded six decades and style evolved; (4) provenance history and any gallery or exhibition labels; (5) condition report addressing craquelure, retouching, frame condition, and paper foxing or fading for works on paper. The multi-currency record base (SGD, HKD, EUR, CHF, AUD, PHP) requires currency normalization to the appraisal's reporting currency. Comparable lots from blue-chip houses (Christie's, Sotheby's) carry more weight as market benchmarks than regional-house results, though both inform the range.

### Valuation factors

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### Collector notes

- Arie Smit is a well-established name in the Southeast Asian modern-art market with consistent auction presence for over two decades. Buyers seeking entry points can find works on paper and prints in the low hundreds to low thousands of dollars at European and regional salerooms. Collectors targeting investment-grade pieces should focus on signed, dated oil-on-canvas Balinese landscapes and village scenes of substantial size, preferably with Christie's or Sotheby's provenance. The year-over-year decline in lot volume (22 to 16) may indicate tightening supply rather than falling demand — the artist's estate is closed, and no new works will enter the market. For sellers, establishing period, provenance, and condition before consignment is essential, as the wide price range means miscategorization can materially affect the reserve price. Multi-currency results mean comparable-sale analysis should normalize to a single currency using the exchange rate at the date of sale.

### Market caveats

- The recorded maximum price (280,000,000 in an unspecified currency) is an extreme outlier relative to the p75 of 212,500 and likely reflects a data-entry currency mismatch (possibly Indonesian Rupiah). It should not be used as a benchmark without verification against the original lot record.
- Approximately 34% of lots (135 of 400) lack a realized price, which may indicate unsold lots, buy-ins, or post-sale private negotiations. Appraisal comparables should weight priced lots more heavily.
- Recent lot volume declined from 22 (prior 12 months) to 16 (trailing 12 months), a ~27% drop. This may reflect market softening, inventory constraints, or simply auction scheduling variation and should not be interpreted directionally without a longer trend series.
- Prices are recorded in at least six currencies (SGD, HKD, EUR, CHF, AUD, PHP). Currency-normalized analysis is required before drawing conclusions about price trends or growth.
- Smit's six-decade career means the body of work is large and varied. Attributions should be verified, as the artist's popular style has been widely imitated by Balinese workshop painters.
- Auction-house and marketplace URLs in the source pack point to Invaluable listing pages, which aggregate catalog data from multiple salerooms. For authoritative provenance, the original auction-house catalog entry should be consulted.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily auction record index: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/arie-smit/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable / Christie's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-1916-2016-tangkolak-oil-on-canvas62-x-86-cm-24-3-8-x-33-7-8-180-c-d773758faf
- Invaluable / Sotheby's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-the-holy-tree-1275-c-18b43a7cfc
- Invaluable / 33 Auction: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-a-quiet-day-in-the-village-41-c-07e0e439d4
- Invaluable / Setdart Auction House: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-netherlands-1916-2016-coastal-view-1990-mixed-media-on-paper-signed-and-dated-in-the-lower-left-corner-239-c-34af262da3
- Invaluable / Global Auction: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-boats-125-c-21e30879f8
- Invaluable / 33 Auction: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-landscape-with-trees-61-c-8e8fc06fe9
- Invaluable / Subastas Segre: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-bali-577-c-a57a7a3e25
- Invaluable / Leonard Joel: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-bali-4026-c-8b466489b6
- Invaluable / Nagel Auction: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-1916-2016-649-c-a21425e9b5
- Invaluable / Nagel Auction: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-1916-2016-648-c-954633ac5f
- Invaluable / Zeeuws Veilinghuis: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-1916-2016-bandung-66-c-b070e787c5
- Invaluable / Deutscher and Hackett: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-arie-smit-temple-entrance-bali-1979-18-c-f809ccb6f8

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from authority files and institutional sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. The Arie Smit page draws on the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), the Library of Congress Name Authority File, VIAF, and Wikidata.

## Sources

- RKD — Netherlands Institute for Art History: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/109072
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n80074091
- VIAF (OCLC): https://viaf.org/viaf/10667599/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3183492
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arie_Smit