Looking at these top ten lists from Sotheby’s Paris sale of Contemporary art, we can see that the Day sale results were dominated by Asian painters. Although other artists saw their works bid well above the estimate range the multiples on those works were nothing like the prices paid for works by Zao Wou-ki who saw bids up to 10x the high estimate.

Zao’s work was purchased overwhelmingly by Asian collectors (presumably Chinese) who came ready to spend even though the great majority of the artist’s career has been spent in France and his work is influenced by Western artists and traditions.