Phillips Up, Christie’s Down in Hong Kong’s Spring Sales

Christie's art sales fell 22% year on year, while Phillips' total was boosted by the purchase of a Basquiat for U.S. $12.6 million.

Hong Kong's spring auctions took place last week under the cloud of Christie's user data hack.

Phillips' Evening and Day sales of Modern and Contemporary art brought in a combined H.K. $296 million (U.S. $38 million), up 22 percent on the previous season.

Sell through rates were high at 97% by value in both the day and evening sales.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari (1982) led the way, fetching H.K. $98.7 million (U.S. $12.6M), towards the lower end of its estimate range of $90 million to $120 million.

Banksy's The Leopard and Lamb (2016) performed well, selling for H.K. $36.8 million (U.S. $4.7 million), well above the high estimate of $28 million.

Christie's sales of 20th and 21st century art, meanwhile, generated sales of H.K. $967 million (U.S. $124.4 million) compared to last year's H.K. $1.24 billion (U.S. $159 million), a decline of 22%.

Andy Warhol's Flowers (1964) led sales, bringing in H.K. $66.6 million (U.S. $8.5 million). Zao Wou-Ki's 10.01.68 (1968) fetched H.K. $63 million (U.S. $8.1 million) and Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkin (1987) netted H.K. $49 million ($6.3 million).

Altogether, Christie's sold 22 works for over H.K. $10 million (U.S. $1.3 million), a decrease from 36 last year.

Unsold works included two paintings by Nicolas Party and a Wayne Thiebaud, all with estimates above H.K. $22 million (U.S. $2.5 million).

Exceeding expectations, at almost twice their high estimates, was a Salvo for H.K. $3.2 million (around U.S. $409,000) and a Marina Perez Simao painting for H.K. $2.1 million (around U.S. $268,000). Miriam Cahn, Lee Bae, and Xia Yu also sold above their high estimates, among others.

New records were set for artists including Japan's Ay-o, U.K.'s Sholto Blissett, Colombia's Daniel Correa Mejia, and Korea's Rhee Seundja, whose La Montagne Sans Ombre (The Mountain without Shadow) (1962) sold for H.K $8.2 million, well above its high-estimate of H.K. $6 million.

While Sotheby's didn't hold an art auction in Hong Kong last month, their Modern & Contemporary Art sale in Singapore is fast approaching on 9 June. It's led by Anita Magsaysay-Ho's Paghuhuli Ng Mga Manok (Catching Chickens) (1962). —[O]