3 min read · 27 Mar 2025
Yayoi Kusama's Starry Pumpkin (2019), estimate $2.06m-$4.12m, is among the top lots in Sotheby's "Modern and Contemporary" evening auction in Hong Kong on March 26
Sales in Hong Kong’s spring auctions, which kick off at Christie’s on March 28, could be 49% lower than comparable sales in 2024.
Data compiled by HENI News shows the art consigned in the sales starting this week at Sotheby's and Christie's, has a total pre-sale estimate of $114m, down $111m from the $225m sold in Hong Kong’s comparable spring sales in 2024.
Phillips, which only has one sale this week to coincide with Art Basel Hong Kong, plans two sales in May, the details of which are still to be announced. If the auction house matches its 2024 results of nearly $38m of total sales, Hong Kong’s combined spring auctions would still see a 42% drop compared to last year’s results.
The significant fall in potential sales in the Asian market reflects a general slowdown in the global art market. London’s spring auctions in early March were down 31%, totaling $328m compared to $474m in 2024, based on HENI News data.
Hong Kong spring auctions set to fall
This year’s spring auctions in Hong Kong are led by a $12.23m painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and a $5.4m still-life by Rene Magritte, both heading to auction at Christie’s “20th/21st Century” evening sale on Thursday.
Christie’s three sales this year could see a fall of 38% to $94m, based on low estimates of the 167 lots announced. Last year, the auction house staged four sales with 277 lots, totaling $123m.
Meanwhile, Sotheby’s “Modern and Contemporary” evening auction on March 29 is led by a Marc Chagall painting with a $2.83m lower estimate and a Yayoi Kusama starry pumpkin with a $2.06m to $4.12m estimate.
Sotheby’s Hong Kong looks set to see a 64% fall from the $99m it achieved in three sales last spring to a possible $35m this spring, for a similar number of lots.
Hong Kong’s auctions are a moveable feast. This year sees Christie’s and Sotheby’s move their major spring sales to March, with the former merging two sales. Last year, they held sales in May and April respectively.
Phillips has chosen to stick with May this year, making it an outlier as VIP collectors flock to Art Basel Hong Kong, although that may change in the future.
Speaking ahead of Hong Kong’s art week, Sotheby’s CEO, Charles F. Stewart, said that he was in town to see if the Asian market was improving. “My sense is that it is getting better, but you never know,” he told ARTnews, adding that the region has “a 1,000 or more high-net-worth individuals waiting to be on-boarded into the art market”.
Another reason to be cautiously optimistic about the art market in Hong Kong is its status as a free port. It has dodged US President Trump’s tariffs aimed at mainland China, so far.