Georgina Adam closes the loop on ArtBasel Hong Kong with her own final sales tally:

Michael Hoppen was celebrating, having placed eight Bill Brandt photographs in mainland China on the first day. while Victoria Miro sold two tapestries by Grayson Perry: one to Taiwan and one to the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou. Indeed, one of the aspects of the fair this year was an increase in buying by mainland Chinese, and particularly for museums in the second- and third-tier cities. Their names may be unknown to westerners, but these regions have populations in the millions and are looking for art to fill their new museums. Generally, however, dealers reported that such buying tended to be well below US$200,000.

The Art Market: London, Paris and Hong Kong  (Financial Times)

Bloomberg gathered a few more sales at ArtBasel Hong Kong:

• Hong Kong-based 10 Chancery Lane sold works by Chinese sculptor Wang Keping, and several silk embroideries of old currencies by Beijing-based duo Muchen and Shao Yinong to collectors from Switzerland and the U.S.
• White Cube sold several millions of dollars worth of art, including a scalpel blade painting depicting an aerial view of Beijing by Damien Hirst to a Chinese collector for 800,000 pounds ($1.3 million), as well as works by Theaster Gates, Christian Marclay and Tracey Emin to regional collectors.
• James Cohan Gallery sold a painting by Italian artist Francesco Clemente to a “prominent Chinese collector,” said the gallery’s Shanghai director Arthur Solway, while works by New York-based Oscar Murillo, whose auction prices have gained as much as 5,600 percent in two years, also found Chinese buyers at David Zwirner gallery.

Billion Dollar Art Basel Hong Kong Woos Chinese Buyers (Bloomberg)

Artnet had these sales:

[Alan] Lau, who sits on the boards of Tate’s Asia-Pacific acquisition committee and Hong Kong’s respected nonprofit space Para/Site was among the collectors who snapped up several works early. “I bought a lot—I don’t even remember [how much],” he said. Among his acquisitions was an aluminum briefcase by the young Fuxin-born Chinese artist Sun Xun titled The Citizenship Pack (2014), for $13,000, and Chinese painter Yuan Yuan’s Common ground community (2013) for HKD 245,000 ($31,605). Lau said his other purchases included work by Korean artist Haegue Yang and Ai Weiwei, represented by Galerie Chantal Crousel and Galerie Urs Meile, respectively.

“It started off slow,” said Darren Flook, senior director at Max Wigram Gallery. “If you had asked me at 3:30 p.m., I would have been the most depressed man in Southeast Asia, but by 4:30 pm I had champagne in my hand,” Flook’s booth featured a solo presentation of black-and-white photo realist paintings by James White. Max Wigram sold five works, including two large still life scenes for $64,000 each, and two smaller works for $15,000.

The Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) sold a sculptural paper collage by the much-talked about Filipino artist Ronald Ventura Into the Woods no. 2 (2012) for SGD 125,000 ($99,817) and a work by Do Ho Suh for $15,000 among others. It also closed a sale of Haegue Yang’s Spice Moons (2013). New York City’s Museum of Modern Art purchased the large work made from potent cooking ingredients like turmeric and chili powder for €120,000 ($164,656). Said head of communications and projects Nor Jumaiyah, STPI made “a tidy sum of $153,000” on Wednesday.

Wednesday also saw Upstream Gallery from Amsterdam sell out its booth in the Discoveries section of the fair, a solo presentation featuring hyperrealist drawings by British David Haines. Among the works to go was More than Domes (2014), for $22,000.

By Thursday morning, Edouard Malingue Gallery had sold out its entire booth, a solo presentation featuring four moody and three other works by Yuan Yuan. The largest work went for HKD 600,000 ($77,402).

And London gallery Victoria Miro sold five works on the first day, including the sprawling wool and cotton tapestry Map of Truths and Beliefs (2011) by Grayson Perry; a Taiwanese corporation purchased it for $95,000. The sale followed on the heels of an acquisition of a larger Perry tapestry by the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the first time the institution had acquired a piece from a Western living artist. Miro also sold a large Idris Khan work for $68,000 to a Hong Kong collector.

New York gallery Lehmann Maupin sold Do Ho Suh’s ethereal blue fabric sculptureSpecimen Series: Medicine Cabinet, 348 West 22nd Street, APT. New York, NY 10011, USA (2013) for $85,000. Among the gallery’s biggest sales was a monumental painting The Guru (2013–2014) by Miami painter Hernan Bas, which was purchased for $350,000 by a collector from Mainland China. Crowd #9 (Sunset Five) (2013), a photograph by American artist Alex Prager was also snapped up by a Mainland Chinese collector for $40,000.

Hauser & Wirth sold Rashid Johnson’s bold mixed media work Eddie (2013), composed of burned red oak flooring and black soap, for $135,000 to a private collection in Brazil.

Tokyo-based Taka Ishii Gallery also sold a large work by Sterling Ruby, QUILT (4857) (2014), for $85,000.

Sean Kelly Gallery sold three small paintings by Scottish painter Callum Innes for 40,000 ($67,306) each, including Untitled Painting No. 14 (2013).

Galleria d’Arte Maggiore of Bologna sold a number of works by iconic Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico, including the stunning Piazza d’Italia con Arianna (1964) which went for €300,000 ($411,184).

Taipei-based Soka Art Center sold two editions of Taiwanese artist Hsi Shih-Pin’s intricate metal work Symbolic Steed of Memory (2014) for $80,000 each.

Art Basel in Hong Kong a Hit With Asia’s Collectors

The South China Morning Post had this take on the fair:

Fair newcomer Howard Shaw, president and director of New York-based Hammer Galleries, said the gallery made new contacts with interested collectors from Asia. “We don’t always judge a fair simply by the sales we made during the period,” he said. His gallery exhibited paintings by Picasso, Renoir, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall, with a total value of about US$100 million, and it sold one piece worth more than US$1 million.

Art Basel Hong Kong wows ‘the sophisticated’ (South China Morning Post)

The Wall Street Journal’s SceneAsia had these sales:

Adrian Cheng, executive director of property developers New World Development Company, said he bought 15 art works on the first day alone. The voracious 34-year-old collector is the grandson of Hong Kong jewelry and real-estate tycoon Cheng Yu-tung.

Among Mr. Cheng’s purchases were a $60,000 sculpture by Adrian Villar Rojas from Marian Goodman gallery and a $180,000 painting installation by Carol Bove from David Zwirner. He also bought works by Tony Ziegler and Valerie Snobeck from Simon Lee gallery.

• Soka Art from Taipei sold a landscape called “Red” by Chinese contemporary oil painter Hong Ling for $600,000.
• White Cube gallery, an Antony Gormley cast-iron sculpture titled “Rest II” was sold. It had an asking price of almost $420,000.
• Among the seven works Lisson Gallery sold on the first day were two works by Jason Martin and three pieces by Anish Kapoor. Prices for the works ranged from $67,000 to US$167,000.

Art Basel Sales: Fair Offers Shopping Spree for the Rich (SceneAsia/WSJ)

Bloomberg’s Frederick Balfour was busy in Hong Kong gather quotes and sales information:

David Zwirner

Half-way through the VIP preview today New World’s Cheng, followed by a staff of four, had bought 12 works and was on the hunt for more. “The good thing about having a team is you buy something and they negotiate” he said while posing beside a Carol Bove painting he bought from David Zwirner.

Zwirner also brought oil-on-canvas works by 28-year-old Oscar Murillo  […] By mid-afternoon of the preview the gallery had sold three paintings ranging from $75,000 to $180,000 to collectors from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Paul Kasmin

“Art Basel has brought more Europeans and Americans to Hong Kong and Asian collectors are becoming more interested in purchasing western art,” said gallery director Nicholas Olney.
Kasmin sold a newly commissioned work by Indonesia’s best-selling contemporary artist, I Nyoman Masriadi, for $350,000 at the VIP opening

Gajah Gallery

The works of Ashley Bickerton, who quit New York after 12 years to move to Bali in 1993, provide a contemporary twist on Gauguin’s exoticism. A painting of two topless women with silver bodies astride a scooter, garlands in their dreadlocks, is selling for $190,000 by Singapore-based Gajah Gallery. Another work by the artist sold for $160,000 at the preview.

Art Basel Beckons Billionaires With $10,000 Passports (Bloomberg)

The fair provided the following results:

Day One

Victoria Miro (London)

• Grayson Perry Map of Truths and Beliefs, 2011, Sold to a major Taiwanese corporation. The price range for Grayson Perry tapestry works is USD 55,000-150,000

Pearl Lam Galleries (Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore)

• Jenny Holzer, Sold works from the collection on display of new LED works in Chinese. Price range USD 180,000-300,000 

Soka Art (Taipei)

• Hong Ling, Red, 2013 Sold for USD 600,000
• Hsi Shih-Pin Symbolic Steed of Memory, 2014, 2 of 3 editions sold USD 80,000 each

Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, London)

• Zhang Enli, 3 paintings sold to different private collections in Mainland China Prices ranging from USD 180,000-240,000
• Rashid Johnson, Eddie, 2013. Sold to a private collection in Brazil. USD 135,000
• Sterling Ruby, Basin Theology/Early Development, 2013. Sold to a foundation in Israel USD 85,000

White Cube (London, Hong Kong, Sao Paulo)

The gallery reported exceptionally strong sales on the first day of the fair to collectors from throughout Asia and the Asia Pacific region.

• Christian Marclay, Smak Splsh Squish (No. 6), 2013. Work had an asking price of USD 375,000
• Antony Gormley, Rest ll, 2012. Work had an asking price of GBP 250,000
• Gary Hume, Untitled, 2014. Work had an asking price of GBP 95,000
• Eddie Peake, Here’s The Mother Fucking Rub, 2014. Work had an asking price of GBP 25,000
• Haim Steinbach, Untitled (feet), 2013. Work had an asking price of USD 55,000

Gajah Gallery (Singapore)

• Ashley Bickerton, Anyone with the Heretical Gall to Ask an Ironist What He Actually Stands For, 2014. SGD 220,000
• Li Jin, Drink It Men Women, 2014. Price: SGD 69,000
• Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Tales from the Primordial Garden – Gnu, 2014. SGD 49,000
• Yunizar, Garuda, 2014. SGD 39,000

ShanghART Gallery (Shanghai)

• Ding YiAppearance of Crosses 2014. 2 million RMB
• Xu Zhen, Produced by Madein Company 2013, Eternity, 2013. HK$ 700,000

Singapore Tyler Print Institute (Singapore)

•  Ronald Ventura, Into the Woods no. 2, 2012. Sold for to SGD 125,000 to an Asia collector

Eslite (Taiwan)

• Sold 3 Zhang Wang works 23 Universe, 2012. USD 60,000; 25 Universe 25, 2012. USD 70,000. Young collectors, very good demographic

GRIMM (Amsterdam)

• Matthias Weischer, Kante / Brink, 2014. Sold for USD 50,000. Sold within the first half an hour

Platform China (Hong Kong)

• Sold 8 works by Chinese artists. Prices ranging from USD 30,000 – 80,000

 Sean Kelly Gallery (New York)

• Sold three small paintings by Callum Innes for GBP 40,000 each

Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai)

• Hema Upadhyay, What are we? 2013. USD 50,000. Sold within first 5 mins to major HK collector

Rhona Hoffman (Chicago)

• Adrian Wong, Untitled (Grate X: Quan Ju De Famous Duck), 2014. Sold for USD  20,000.  Sold to a young Hong Kong collector

Athr Gallery (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)

• Ahmed Mater, Disarm, 2013. Edition 1 of 5. Sold for USD 34,000
• Ahmed Mater, Disarm 01, 2013. Edition 1 of 5. Sold for USD 26,000
• Ahmed Mater, Abraaj Al Bait Towers, 2013. Edition 4 of 5. Sold for USD 26,000

Wentrup (Berlin)

• Gregor Hildebrandt, Schäume sind Träume (Eyes Wide Shut), 2014. Sold for USD 45,000
• David Renggli, I Love You (Fun Bow), 2014. Sold for USD 31,000

Michael Hoppen Gallery (London)

• Bill Brandt, Nude, London, 1952. Sold for HKD 240,000

Galerie Eigen + Art (Berlin, Leipzig)

• Carsten Nicolai, Unicolor Substraktiv Diptych, 2014. Sold for EUR 12,000

Tomio Koyama Gallery (Tokyo, Singapore)

• 2 works by Shooshie Sulaiman Nana Funo. For Getting into Someone’s Lonely Night. USD 25,000. Sold to a Japanese Collector

ShugoArts (Tokyo)

• Sold 2 Lee Kit works  in first 30 mins. The Devil is at the back of your neck 2014; The Boy is the Leather Shoes. Total of USD 42,000

Upstream Gallery (Amsterdam)

• Sold out their booth in the Discoveries sector of the fair, a solo presentation with works by David Haines

Day Two

Ben Brown Fine Arts (London, Hong Kong)

• François-Xavier Lalanne, Gorille, 1970/ 1984; Retail price at EUR 1 million
• Yunizar  龍尼扎, Untitled (無題), 2014; Sold to a Hong Kong collector (Retail price USD 25,000 – 35,000)

Galleria d’Arte Maggiore (Bologna, Italy)

• Giorgio de Chirico, Piazza d’Italia con Arianna, 1964; Sold for EUR 300,000

Paul Kasmin Gallery (New York)

• Nyoman Masriadi, Spares, 2014; Sold for USD 350,000

Lehmann Maupin (New York, Hong Kong)

• Hernan BasThe Guru, 2013-2014; Sold for USD 350,000 to a collector from Mainland China

Long March Space (Beijing)

• Wang Jianwei Surface IV, 2014; Sold for RMB 1,300,000
• Zhang Hui, Blueprint.Communication III, 2014; Sold for RMB 450,000
• Guo Fengyi, The Two Characters for Chrysanthemum, 1995; Sold for RMB 200,000

Pearl Lam Galleries(Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore)

• Jenny Holzer; Sold works from the collection on display of new LED works in Traditional Chinese; Price range USD 180,000-300,000
• Zhu Jinshi, Walking in the Well, 2013; Price range USD 195,000 – 240,000

Tornabuoni Arte (Florence, Milan, Forte dei Marmi, Portofino, Paris)

• Panlo Atchugarry, Senza titolo, 2013, Sold for USD 160,000

Sean Kelly Gallery (New York)

• Mariko Mori, Renew lll, 2014; Sold for EUR 130,000; Sold to a private foundation in Korea

Hauser & Wirth (Zurich, New York, London)

• The gallery reported the acquisition by a private museum in Shanghai of a major suite of works by Sterling Ruby.
• Zhang Enli, The Branch, 2014; Sold for USD 210,000
• Zhang Enli, Tension 1, 2013; Sold for USD 210,000
• Zhang Enli, The Textile, 2014, Sold for USD 180,000
• Zhang Enli, A Roll of Mines, 2012; Sold for USD 180,000
• Zhang Enli, Melancholy; Sold for USD 115,000
• Wilhelm Sasnal, Plock, 2004; Sold for EUR 85,000; Sold to a private collection in Beijing
• Wilhelm Sasnal, Untitled (London Muslim Centre), 2011; Sold for USD 80,000

Soka Art (Taipei, Beijing)

• Natee Utirit, Moon Light Monday, 2008; Sold for USD 80,000

Rhona Hoffman (Chicago)

• Wang Qingsong Photograph; Sold for USD 60,000

XVA Gallery (Dubai)

• Halim Al Karim, Eternal Love, 2010; Sold for USD 45,000
• Halim Al Karim, Illusion, 2013; Two works in the series, sold for USD 20,000 each

Hanart TZ Gallery (Hong Kong)

• Gu Wenda One of the paintings from Retranslating & rewriting of Tang Poem series Ink rubbing in paper (2003-2005); Sold for around HKD 300,000-340,000

Taka Ishii Gallery (Tokyo)

• Nobuyoshi Araki, Tokyo Story; Sold for USD 26,000

One and J Gallery (Seoul)

• Jina Park , A man ironing in a round gallery; Sold for USD 23,000

Shanghai Gallery (Shanghai)

• Gao Weigang, Up 5; Sold 3 editions ranging from RMB 180,000-250,000

Chemould Prescott Road (Mumbai)

• Jitish Kalla, Celes Terres Perpetum; Sold for USD 25,000

Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi)

• Atul Dodiya with Romain Rolland, Switzerland, December 1931, 2013; Sold for USD 20,000 to an Asian collector

 

Five works were also acquired at Art Basel in Hong Kong by M+, Hong Kong’s new museum of visual culture, with the Brown Family Annual Acquisition Fund; a $5m HKD donation by Hong Kong-based philanthropist and artist Rosamond Brown which was announced this week. Conceived to give M+ the opportunity to acquire work suitable for the museum’s growing collection, the fund will be used to acquire works from the show over the next decade.

The first acquisitions were:

Byron Kim, Belly Painting, (Yellow Green with Streaks), (2004)

Au Hoi Lam, Memento (White Shirt), Memento (She Can’t Remember), (2014)

Hassan Sharif , Cotton Rope No. 7 (2012)

Kishio Suga, Untitled, (1975)