Phillips Hong Kong Sales Fail to Sparkle

A signature Dictionary painting by Liu Dan set a new auction record for the Chinese artist at Phillips in its spring sales in Hong Kong. But if there is one word that sums up its modern and contemporary auctions, it's: average.

Phillips day and evening sales on March 29 in the city dipped to a C- on the HENI Auction index, down from a C+.

The two sales totaled $11.3m with fees and saw 129 works on offer. The former was nearly 60% down on its most recent comparable sales in the city and nearly 75% below in real terms on the historic average.

Lot wise, the total of works consigned fell nearly 18% from its most recent sales and were about 13% below the norm.

The HENI Auction Index is based on more than ten metrics, including the percentage of works selling above their low estimate. At Phillips, this was 75%, and 2.5 percentage points better than the norm, so a positive. But the share of works selling above their high estimate was down by almost 11% compared to the historic average.

The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio dipped but only slightly.

The percentage of lots bought-in held steady compared to the most recent sales but increased by 3.2 percentage points on the historic average. Meanwhile, the share of withdrawn lots rose by 2.8 percentage points compared to the historic average.

Yayoi Kusama is a reliable performer at auction and her work did not disappoint in the day sale, which was led by the veteran Japanese artist’s yellow Polka-dot painting, River (1994). It sold for $280,200 with fees, 56% above its low estimate.

While its peers Christie’s and Sotheby’s saw improved results in Hong Kong, Phillips performance was altogether more muted.

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