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Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring Sales, 2007-2019

April 2, 2019 by Marion Maneker

This analysis of six years of Spring Sales in Hong Kong of Modern and Contemporary Art Evening sales was made possible with data from our friends at Pi-eX. It is available to AMMpro subscribers. Subscriptions begin with a free month for the curious. 

Sotheby’s had another strong sale in Hong Kong today. With reports that the Chinese market was in decline coming out shortly before this sales cycle, few were expecting the Hong Kong sales to be robust. Then, over the first two days of the cycle, auction totals and sell-through rates were very, very strong. Asian Modern and Contemporary seems to have made a shift from previous performance to much greater value.

In the Modern category, Zao Wou-ki is emerging as the market-driving force with the ability to generate high prices for individual works and have enough material to create market volume. In 2018, Zao sold $326m worth of art at auction and reached a peak price of $65m. At Sotheby’s this week, the Modern evening sale reached $101m with $55m coming from Zao’s work.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening sale was more restrained with $56m in sales but records were set for Asian artists like Yayoi Kusama and non-Asian artists like Julie Mehretu. It is far too early to drawn conclusions or trends from this one sales cycle—and the totals are still relatively low compared to New York’s sales cycles—but Asian market is beginning to approach new levels.

The charts Pi-eX has prepared for us here compare similar sales from previous sale cycles at Sotheby’s and from the comparable sales at Sotheby’s and Phillips over the same period. These charts only cover the Evening Modern and Contemporary sales. They do not include valuable sales in other categories or single-owner sales. What we’re charting here is the growth of the Modern and Contemporary art market in Hong Kong.Continue Reading

A KAWS Painting Sells for $14.7m in Nigo’s Hong Kong Sale

April 1, 2019 by Marion Maneker

In Nigo’s Nigoldeneye, Vol. 1 sale in Hong Kong this evening, this rare works from KAWS, The KAWS Album, sold for HKD 115m or more than 12 times the high estimate hammer price. That works out to $14.7m, a huge leap in pricing for the artist who just set a record in November at $2.7m.

The market for KAWS’s work is already the subject of a great deal of consternation. Expect even more snark and envy after this.

A View of the Asian Works of Art Market: Olivia Hamilton

March 27, 2019 by Marion Maneker

A rare bronze figure of Shiva Nataraja ($1.035m), left; Olivia Hamilton, right.

Christie’s Asia Week sales were anchored by the Irving Collection which did exceptionally well at $31.2m, well above the initial estimates. To get a better sense of what lay behind some of the big prices achieved, we asked Christie’s Olivia Hamilton to tell us a little more about the house’s strategy. Olivia Hamilton originally trained as a lawyer in Hong Kong after graduating from Oxford with a degree in Classics. She studied Mandarin in Beijing and earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.

The $2.895m jade Twin Fish washer sold well above estimates but it doesn’t seem like the work’s appeal was a surprise to you. Was the estimate set to attract bidders or a function of the market or an opportunity because of the Florence and Herbert Irving Collection being sold at one time?

We certainly knew that this washer would attract a lot of attention, both because it is extremely rare and beautiful, and because of the Irving provenance. The estimate was set to reflect the importance of this piece, while also attracting as many bidders as possible.

This red lacquer Daoist scripture box sold for $1,035,000, against a low estimate of $150,000. Imperial objects have a lot of appeal to collectors. Nonetheless, there was a huge gap between the estimates and the bidding. Do you have thoughts on where the demand came from?

As a collecting area, lacquer tends to fetch more modest prices than areas such as porcelain, jade and bronze, and reasonable estimates are one of the best ways of attracting buyers in this category. Nevertheless on the day of the auction, the bidding was truly intense, and the Imperial quality, rarity and Irving provenance of this scripture box were all factors which pushed the price to a very high level.

The Irving’s also had works from South Asia like this rare bronze figure of Shiva Nataraja, that sold for ten times its estimate, achieving $1,035,000. Is this a different group of buyers than the bidders on Chinese works of art?

The Irving’s interest in Asian works of art was broad in scope. Their extensive collection spanned objects from throughout Asia, including works of art from South Asia, Japan, and Korea, in addition to their comprehensive collection of Chinese works of art and Chinese painting. Their pan-Asian collecting made this sale especially exciting for the specialist departments at Christie’s as it allowed us to partner with colleagues across all areas of Asian art. I spoke to my colleague Tristan Bruck, specialist for Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art, who described the collecting base for South Indian bronzes as typically a mix of North American and European clients and collectors of Indian descent based in other countries (NRI), as well as a smaller group of clients from South and East Asia. On the whole, it is a different buying base than those that typically bid on Chinese or Himalayan works of art.

Fu Baoshi’s Lithe Like A Crane, Leisurely Like A Seagull, sold for $1,815,000. Fu is a much sought after artist and his work has a great deal of value, as your estimates indicate. But this work did particularly well. Do you have sense whether the subject matter or the provenance had an influence on the bidding or was it simply the image itself?

For this work, I spoke with our specialist of Chinese Paintings, Jennie Tang, who mentioned that the subject of the prominent historical figure, Shao Sengmi, is a rare topic by the artist, and furthermore, the composition is extremely exceptional. There was a lot of attention on this work prior to the auction, due to the quality and rarity of the piece. The prominent Irving provenance further enhanced interest in the painting.

Mid-Season Sales Move Up in Value, Mimic Concentration at Top

March 18, 2019 by Marion Maneker

Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Painter) ($1.8-2.5m) $7.325m

This detailed analysis of the February Mid-Season Contemporary art sales in New York was made possible with data from our friends at Live Auction Art. It is available to AMMpro subscribers. Subscriptions begin with a free month for the curious.

The Mid-Season Contemporary auctions held in New York to fall between the ADAA Art Show and the Armory Show showed a substantial jump this Winter over last year’s results. The combined sales at Sotheby’s, Phillips and Christie’s was $63m (excluding nearly $4m from Sotheby’s fundraising sale for Miss Porter’s School in Connecticut) this year over $53m for the same sales last year.

Just two paintings at Sotheby’s—Jack Whitten’s Special Checking and Kerry James Marshall’s Untitled (Painter)—account for the entire increase in one year to the next. But that isn’t the entire story. In 2018, there were almost 900 works on offer at the three houses. During that sales cycle, 82% of the lots sold. This February, 80% of the lots sold but number offered was off by a quarter down to 666 from 895 in 2018.

Although the number of works offered and sold were down, the average price per work was $117,119 in 2019 versus $72,141 in 2018. Even if we remove the two top lots, the average price in 2019 remains a very high $98.9m.Continue Reading

London Winter Impressionist & Modern Evening Sales, 2007-2019

March 4, 2019 by Marion Maneker

This analysis of the 13-year analysis of February Impressionist & Modern Art Evening sales was made possible with data from our friends at Pi-eX. [Please Note: These charts are ONLY for Impressionist and Modern Evening Sales and do not include Single-Owner sales like last week’s Wallace collection at Christie’s.] It is available to AMMpro subscribers. Subscriptions begin with a free month for the curious. 

Although the Impressionist and Modern Evening sales were lopsided toward Christie’s, both houses closed the week happy with their results. That seems to be part of a larger strategy to reduce the size of these sales and continue to increase the sell-through rate across the board in the industry.

The number of lots sold in London (exempting the works in the Hidden Treasures sale) were the fewest in a decade. This continues a trajectory of smaller Imp-Mod sales (by lot) that began in the peak year of 2014 and has steadily fallen over six years.Continue Reading

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