Spring art auction sales totals in Hong Kong down on 2023 (2024)

For auction houses in the midst of a major expansion of their Hong Kong operations, the effects of the global slowdown in the art market continued during the second block of spring auctions in the city, which have just ended.

Christie’s, which will hold auctions at its new Asia-Pacific headquarters at The Henderson in Central from September, sold HK$967 million (US$123.7 million) worth of 20th and 21st century art during its last sale at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

This marked a further slide from last autumn’s HK$1.05 billion and was 22 per cent less than the HK$1.24 billion achieved for the same category in its spring 2023 sales. Total sales in all categories at Christie’s auctions held between May 25 and June 1 were HK$2.3 billion, compared with HK$3 billion last year.

Phillips, in its second year at its West Kowloon headquarters, was boosted by a major consignment – a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting – and pulled in HK$296 million from its modern and contemporary sales, a 22 per cent increase over the previous season but still a significant drop from last spring’s HK$473.3 million.

The Basquiat work, from 1982 and called Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari, was the third painting by the late American artist Phillips has sold this spring – the other two, like this one new to the market having previously belonged to the Italian anthropologist Francesco Pellizzi, sold for US$40.2 million (US$46.5 million with fees) and US$6.5 million (US$7.8 million with fees) in New York last month.

At Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on May 31, the Basquiat painting sold for a hammer price of HK$83 million (HK$98.7 million with fees), which was lower than the presale estimate, net of fees, of HK$90 million to HK$100 million. Still, it was the most valuable lot sold at auction so far this year in Hong Kong.

“What we’ve seen in the last year is that there have been a lot less people participating in the market,” said Jonathan Crockett, Phillips’ chairman of Asia and auctioneer at the sale.

“In a stronger economy, you’d most likely be looking at there being one or two more bidders in the market, perhaps. We had three people put their hands up on Friday night.

“All it would take was two [more] people to drive the price sky high. Without that speculative participation, you’re kind of missing out on a little bit of that happening,” he added.

“It’s definitely not a disappointment. It would have been nice if it would have been three figures as opposed to two figures in terms of millions, but that’s just the way it is at the moment,” Crockett said.

He said the high sell-through rate of over 90 per cent for both the evening and day sales was encouraging, even if 37 per cent of works in the evening sale sold for below estimates.

These included Wimbledon 1 (2011) by American artist Jonas Wood, which went for HK$1.6 million against an estimate of HK$2 million to HK$4 million, and T1989-U28 (1989) by French-German painter Hans Hartung, which sold for a hammer price of HK$1.4 million against the low presale estimate of HK$2 million.

Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (2000) sold for HK$11 million before fees – its presale estimate was HK$13 million to HK$20 million – while a Zao Wou-Ki painting, titled 30.09.97 (1997), failed to sell. A Gerhard Richter work, Abstraktes Bild (947-5) (2016) was withdrawn, while the Banksy work The Leopard and Lamb (2016) fetched HK$30 million before fees, above its high estimate of HK$28 million.

Strong demand for 20th century works in the Christie’s sales confirmed a recent trend of collectors showing more enthusiasm for older works than for the ultra contemporary art that dominated at sales held during the pandemic.

Highlights included Sanyu’s Vase de fleurs (1931), which sold for above its presale estimate of HK$18 million to HK$28 million, fetching HK$30 million before fees.

A René Magritte oil painting of a rose, titled L’invitation au voyage (1944), sold for a hammer price of HK$35 million, within the range of its HK$28 million to HK$38 million estimate.

Una sera (2004) by Italian artist Salvo, who has been gaining more prominence in the auction market of late, sold for HK$2.6 million before fees, well above its high estimate of HK$1.5 million.

However, Andy Warhol’s Flowers (1965), which went under the hammer for HK$55 million, sold below its presale estimate of HK$62.8 million to HK$92.8 million.

A work by the late artist Matthew Wong, Shangri-La (2017), was withdrawn before the sale, as was the Kaws work TOGETHER (2017).

Two works by Nicholas Party and Wayne Thiebaud’s Little Deli (2001) failed to sell, but a work by Belgian artist Ben Sledsens sold for triple its high estimate of HK$400,000, fetching HK$1.3 million before fees.

Nearly half of the lots went unsold in Bonhams’ May 25 sale of modern and contemporary art, which achieved a low sell-through rate of 55 per cent.

In April, Sotheby’s, which is set to open a 24,000 sq ft (2,230 square metre) space at Landmark Chater in Central in July 2024, also saw a high number of lots withdrawn and conservative pricing in its spring art auctions.

Christie’s has also had to contend with an additional problem recently: a cyberattack which brought down its website temporarily just before its May auctions in New York; its Hong Kong sales were unaffected.

A ransomware group, RansomHub, claimed responsibility on May 27 and threatened to release the personal data of at least 500,000 of Christie’s private clients onto the dark web.

One client of the auction house has launched a class-action lawsuit against Christie’s for failing to protect clients’ personal data, despite the company telling affected customers on May 30 that the hackers acquired no financial or transaction data.