Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips saw a cautious Hong Kong market where their combined sales brought in $136.3 million.
Over the weekend, the big three auction houses held their own sales in Hong Kong, considered the hottest art hub of Asia. Christie’s kicked off the week on Friday and ended up selling all but three of the 35 lots on the block. A third of the works exceeded their estimates by a fair margin. Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme (1944) was the highlight of the evening, selling for $25.3 million – not only double its estimate, but also the record for the artist in Asia. Another Picasso work, Nu assis appuyé sur des coussins (1964), sold for $4.14 million. However, Lucy Bull’s 8:50 (2020) fell short of her Hong Kong hype and only sold for $604,000.
On Saturday, Phillips held its Modern and Contemporary auction and fetched $20 million from the 20 lots sold. The biggest sale of the evening was Pinky (2000) by Yoshimoto Nara, which was sold for $7.28 million. Mask Series 1999 No. 2 by Zeng Fanzhi sold for $1.32 million. Works by Warhol, Picasso, and Izumi Kato also did well. On Sunday, Sotheby’s held its own modern and contemporary sale, which fetched $43 million. 38 lots were sold, while 2 failed to sell and 4 were withdrawn. Once again, Yoshimoto Nara emerged as the headliner, with Can’t Wait ’til the Night Comes selling for $10.3 million. Another Nara work, Sprout the Ambassador, was sold for $2.37 million – well past its high estimate.
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Combined, the three auctions managed a total of $136.3 million. This was certainly significantly less than the $208.6 million gathered by similar auctions last fall. On a closer look, however, both Phillips and Sotheby’s performed relatively the same. Only Christie’s lagged behind its numbers, but this was because last year was the auction house’s inaugural auction in the new Hong Kong HQ.
