Christie’s second 20th/21st Century sale at its new Hong Kong headquarters ended subdued, fetching $73.3 million.
Last year, the auction house held its inaugural auction at the newly-unveiled headquarters in Hong Kong. The auction grabbed eyeballs everywhere and brought in a solid $113.4 million. To top those results, Christie’s had moved the auction dates to coincide with the Art Basel Hong Kong. The plan was to capture the international audience arriving to attend the art event.
The plan both did and didn’t succeed. The footfall at the auction, held on Friday, was more than 7,000. Most of the people in the jam-packed hall were visitors from the Art Basel. But despite the dense footfall, the bidding remained passive and subdued. The auction had a 95 percent sell-through rate for the 43 lots that hit the auction block, yet barely any work stirred competitive bidding among the audience. The star of the evening definitely was Sabado porla Noche (1984) by Jean-Michel Basquiat. The work sold for $14.5 million, slightly lower than its high estimate of $16.1 million, but still higher than any other work by a mile. Reverie de Monsieur James (1943) by René Magritte sold for $6.1 million – quite in the middle of its estimate. LaPromenade au bord de la mer (1892) by Renoir sold for $4.5 million, above its high estimate of $3.6 million.
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Among Asian artists, a sculpture by Taiwanese artist Ju Ming sold for $1.6 million – more than double its presale estimate. However, despite these few surprises, the overall sale remained a lackluster affair and only totaled $73.3 million (including buyer’s premium). Most of the works fetched prices closer to their lower estimate. Despite this, Christie’s Asia-Pacific president called the results “robust”.
