Hong Kong’s latest art auctions see turnover lingering at 8-year low
Overall auction sales by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips reflected art market downturn since 2016, despite the sale of Asia’s most expensive Picasso
The art market downturn continued to play out at Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong this past weekend, with the turnover from back-to-back art auctions loitering at an eight-year low.
But a handful of records and some last-minute withdrawals – which improved the success ratio of the sales – helped inject long-missing vigour into the sales room during the seasonal marquee modern and contemporary art evening sales, which saw around 100 high-value artworks go under the hammer across the three venues.
On September 26, Christie’s fired the first salvo with Mattino di primavera (Spring Morning), a 2007 work by, coincidentally, Salvo, an Italian artist who went by one name.
The relatively modest starting price of HK$500,000 (US$64,000) saw bids coming in fast and furious for the first lot of the auction. It eventually sold for HK$4 million (HK$5 million including fees), five times higher than the lowest estimate.
The first lot in Phillips’ evening sale on Saturday – Basic Knot (2016) by Firenze Lai – also drew plenty of bids. The work on paper by the Hong Kong-born artist, now represented by White Cube gallery, sold for HK$477,300, nearly four times the lowest estimate.