Reuters carries the results from Christie’s sales of Contemporary Chinese art and 20th Century Chinese art. The two sales brought in US$18.1 million with approximately half of the lots sold:
“The people who were willing to spend HK$5 million was fairly limited tonight,” said Roger McIlroy, an art dealer and former deputy Chairman of Christie’s in Asia.
“The prices they (the sellers) were seeking were probably more than they’d paid four years ago, with the market at the moment indicating a retraction back a few years in price levels.”
One bright spot was Zao Wou-Ki’s “Hommage a Tou-Fou,” a large abstract work of swirling greys and reds which fetched HK$45.5 million ($5.86 million) — an auction record for the artist.
The top lot in the Asian contemporary sale was Zhang Xiaogang’s “Bloodline: Big Family No. 2” — a large family portrait from the collection of Hollywood director Oliver Stone which sold for HK$26.4 million ($3.4 million) — though well below its pre-sale estimate of around HK$40 million.
Curiously, the lead lot in the Southeast Asian sale that took place in the afternoon seems to have been withdrawn. But the sale, which was not covered by Reuters, pulled in almost $4 million with two-thirds of the lots sold. This picture, above, by Yasmin Sison, Bound, went for more than twice the high estimate at just under $18,000.
