The Painting That Set Amoako Boafo's Auction Record
3 min read · 14 Apr 2025
Hands Up. Image courtesy of Christie's
Amoako Boafo's Hands Up (2018) sold for $3.42m (HKD26.65m) at Christie's in Hong Kong on December 1, 2021. The oil on canvas work, acquired directly from the artist, had not been traded before.
The Ghanaian artist told the Los Angeles Times in 2019 about the importance of art history in his work: "I was searching for a way to paint figurative portraits in a loose and free way. So I would go to museums or look at books, thinking about how people like Schiele got there."
Boafo was a masters student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2018 when Kehinde Wiley found his art on Instagram. “He suggested my work to his galleries,” Boafo recalled, “which was when things started picking up”.
Now represented by Gagosian, the Accra-based artist's meteoric rise was confirmed by his solo show at Vienna's Belvedere in 2024 when his work hung alongside portraits by Schiele and Klimt.
Baba Diop. Image courtesy of Christie's
The sale beat Boafo's previous auction record by $2.27m, a 175% rise. His previous record was set by Baba Diop (2019), which sold for $1.15m at Christie's on December 2, 2020. The work had been traded once in the past.
A Brief History of Amoako Boafo at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021-12-01 | Hands Up | $3.42m | 198 % | Christie's | Hong Kong |
2020-12-02 | Baba Diop | $1.15m | 31 % | Christie's | New York |
2020-02-13 | The Lemon Bathing Suit | $875,700 | - | Phillips | London |
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