This report on the Sotheby's Hong Kong contemporary art evening sale is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.) 

On Tuesday, Sotheby’s Hong Kong contemporary art evening sale brought in a total of HKD 684.1 million ($88.3 million) with buyer's fees across 34 lots. Hammering at HKD 571.8 million ($73.8 million), the result placed solidly within the pre-sale estimate range HKD 400 million–570 million ($51.5–73.4 million). The sale had a high sell-through rate by lot of 92 percent. The figure marks an increase of 26 percent over the October 2019 equivalent sale total of HKD 538.2 million ($69.4 million) made across 30 sold lots.

This year marked the highest Asia-based contemporary evening sale estimate for Sotheby’s with an equal number of Western and Asian artists represented in the offerings. Overall, 68 percent of works sold above the high estimate, 30 percent sold within the pre-sale expectation and 1 works failed to reach the low estimate.

The leading lots of the evening auction included works by Western artists. Gerhard Richter’s abstraction from 1987 sold for HKD 214.6 million ($27.7 million) from the collection of Ron Perelman, setting a record for the highest price ever achieved for a Western artist in an Asia auction. It went for 1.8 times the low estimate of HKD 120 million ($15.5 million.). Francis Bacon’s Study for a Portrait (1979) featuring the face of Bacon’s confidant and heir to his estate, John Edward, sold for HKD 37.7 million ($4.9 million), meeting its high estimate. It last sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2011 for $4.4 million, where it was acquired by the seller.