Asian Art Market Continues Rapid Ascent at Sotheby’s $270 M. Hong Kong Sales

By Angelica Villa

Chu Teh-Chun, Harmonie hivernale, 1986. Courtesy SOTHEBY'S.

Sotheby’s three live-streamed evening sales of modern and contemporary art held on Sunday and Monday night in Hong Kong brought in a hammer total of HKD 1.46 billion, or HKD 2.1 billion with premium ($269.8 million), exceeding the collective pre-sale low estimate of HKD 1.4 billion ($179 million), across 91 works sold. Seventeen of those lots were guaranteed at a collected low estimate of HKD 661.5 million ($85.2 million).

The results from this series further indicate the ascendance of the Asian market. The restructuring of the global evening sales, which now include cross-category offerings, seems to have benefited Asia most compared to other sale centers, with this spring season seeing the house’s highest estimated Hong Kong season to date.

The three evening sales devoted to modern and contemporary art featured works by staples like Picasso, Yoshitomo Nara, and Zao Wou-Ki, and Sanyu, as well as Clyfford Still and Gerhard Richter, whose works have seen heightened success on the block in Asia in recent months.

The sale also set seven new artist records across the evening auctions. One was for a postwar artist, Chu Teh-Chun; the rest were for emerging ones such as Hajime Sorayama, Avery Singer, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Chris Huen Sin Kan, Hajime Sorayama, and Joel Mesler...READ MORE