Christie’s Hong Kong Art Sales Fetch $162.2m

Hong Kong Follow +

Christie’s took a low risk approach to the inaugural auctions at their new Hong Kong flagship last week.

‘Everything of high value is third-party guaranteed,’ Christie’s Cristian Albu told The Art Newspaper before the evening sale of 20th and 21st century art on Thursday. ‘I wanted something safe, fresh and uplifting—it’s been a difficult, strange year for all of us.’

Vincent van Gogh‘s Les canots amarrés (1887) sold for U.S. $32.3 million, towards the low end of its estimate of $30 million–50 million. Monet’s water lily painting Nymphéas (ca. 1897–1899) fared a little better, bringing in $30.1 million against an estimate of $25 million–35 million. Both were Asia auction records for the artists.

Albu said the sales were hard-won by the Christie’s team.

‘We all cancelled our summer,’ she said. ‘It’s been two or three months of hard work. Every single painting was like getting blood out of a stone!’

Other notable sales included Lucy Bull‘s 18:50 (2021) for 2.4 million, a world record for the artist, and Ronald Ventura‘s State of Bloom (2021), which sold for $4.7 million—over 20 times its low estimate.

In the 21st Century Day Sale, Yoshitomo Nara‘s ABC (1998) realised $2.1 million, eclipsing the high estimate of $1.3 million, while Yayoi Kusama‘s Pumpkin (2006) painting sold just shy of its low estimate of $1.9 million. —[O]

Main image: Auctioneer Adrien Meyer selling Claude Monet's Nymphéas during Christie's 20th/21st Century Evening Sale in Hong Kong. Courtesy Christie's.