Christie’s Hong Kong Is on a Roll

Christie’s Hong Kong posted a third straight gain this spring, earning a B+ on the HENI Auction Index in sales that totaled $113.3m.

The auction house’s three modern and contemporary sales on March 27–28 edged past Sotheby’s strong showing in the city that same week. Both achieved their third successive improvement on the index.

Over a longer timeframe, however, the picture is less rosy: Christie’s total sales were 40% below the average in real terms for comparable auctions in the city.

Gerhard Richter’s fiery canvas, Abstraktes Bild (1991) led its 20th/21st Century evening sale. The work, which had a guarantee, sold for $11.78m with fees, 18% above its low estimate.

It was a memorable set of auctions for the Japanese artist Atsushi Kaga, whose YES! (A bag made by my mother) (2021), sold for $584,900 with fees in the same sale and was the outperformer on the night and briefly a record breaking work.

The next day Kaga’s 2020 painting, Moon Catcher, sold for $600,100 with fees and again flying past its estimate and setting a new auction record for the artist.

Other eye-catching auction records set in the sales included Walter Spies’s. His 1934 Balinese jungle landscape, A view from the heights sold for $7.56m with fees, an 86% improvement on his previous record sale.

Also on March 27, the Swiss painter Lenz Geerk's Couple on a Fresco (2019) went for $276,200, beating his previous auction record by $197,500, a 250% rise.

These contributed to the auction house’s improvement on the HENI Auction Index, which is based on more than ten metrics.

The total number of lots on offer was 180, slightly fewer than its most recent sales in Hong Kong and 37% below the historic average.

The share of works beating their low estimate rose 6.6 points on the historic average to 81.4%, while those exceeding the high estimate fell by the same margin to 36.5%.

The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio was 1.3, remaining consistent over the past three comparable sales but it was down on the historic average, 1.5.

The share of lots with strong guarantees was above average, while those with weak guarantees rose 1.3 percentage points above the average and were slightly higher than in the most recent sale.

On a more positive note, the 6 percent of lots bought-in was 4 percentage points below the average. The 1% of lots withdrawn was in line with the average.

Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here.