Seoul Auction held its Modern and Contemporary Art Sale in Hong Kong earlier this week. The results are given in an unconventional format (without buyer’s premium,) so the the HK$46.978m (or $6.06m) is closer to a $7.5m total for the actual price paid. 58 out of the 93 lots offered were sold for a clearance rate of 62%. The top lots were sold at almost the same price with Sanyu‘s Flowers in a White Vase selling for HK$15.25m, very near the top of the estimate range, and Damien Hirst‘s The Importance of Elsewhere making HK$15.5
The sale was filled with a broad range of Contemporary art. But the works that attracted the next level of bids were Asian artists with strong reputations and auction histories. Lee Ufan‘s From Point sold for HK$1.3m but some of the same artist’s works estimated at much higher levels did not find buyers. Yayoi Kusama, too, had a substantial number of works in the sale. But this White Pumpkin canvas, which made HK$720,000 (about $92,000)was the highest price paid for her work.
To see some of the numerous contemporary Korean works that were offered, click through to the catalogue here.
