Jeff Koons defends himself, Thelma Golden's Bright Future & Frank Dunphy's Sale Outperforms

Christie’s Does $17.89m in Shanghai Sale

Strong prices for Zao Wou-ki, Serge Poliakoff and Richard Lin

Christie’s held a sale in Shanghai late last week that offers an interesting window into the Mainland Chinese interest in Western art. The two sales totaled ¥122m yuan which is equivalent to $17.89m with the top lot a Zao Wou-ki from 1992 nearly tripled the pre-sale estimate of ¥16m to sell for ¥45.6m. Demand for Zao’s work is strong and the success is not really a surprise. But the second most valuable lot in the sales was a Salvador Dalí sculpture that sold for ¥9m over a ¥3.5m high estimate. Even more surprising was the ¥7.56m ($1.1m) paid for Serge Poliakoff’s Rouge bleu jaune which was more than three times the high estimate of ¥2.4m. That’s the third highest price ever paid for a work by Poliakoff.

Other strong sales were Sean Scully’s 4.18.04 which had a ¥1.6m high estimate and a ¥3.12m premium price. Two works by Richard Lin, including Ynyslas which sold for ¥3m, were strong performers as was a Giorgio de Chirico, a Bernard Buffet clown and a Botero.