Jing Daily offers an early report on Sotheby’s Hong Kong sales cycle which opened over the weekend with a Sunday Evening sale of Modern and Contemporary Asian Art that made a very healthy $78m:
The top lot of the auction was Wang Huaiqing’s Feet 2 (diptych), which set an artist record with a price of US$6.9 million (HK$54.5 million), well above the high pre-sale estimate of HK$40 million. Liu Wei’s painting The Revolutionary Family Series (triptych) also set an artist record when it sold for US$5 million (HK$38.84 million), making it the number four lot of the sale.
Another major Chinese contemporary highlight of the auction was The Sleeping Venus by Xu Beihong, which topped its high estimate and was the second most expensive lot at US$5 million (HK$39.4 million).
With all top lots sold to Asian collectors, including one sale to Shanghai’s Long Museum, the auction results showed buoyant Chinese demand that defied concerns about a slumping luxury and auction market. […]
Prominent Hong Kong gallerist Pearl Lam told Nikkei, “In my personal experience, China seems to be purchasing more art, not less,”
Sotheby’s Hong Kong Defies China Luxury Slowdown with Strong Auction Season Start (Jing Daily)
