Sotheby’s Keeps Up the Momentum in Hong Kong

It was Yoshitomo Nara’s night at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. His 1994 work, Present, led its modern and contemporary evening sale, followed by the Japanese artist’s installation The Crated Room in Iceland / Drawing Room.

The former fetched $9.14m with fees, and the latter $7.9m, near their high estimates on September 28. Both were backed by guarantees.

Sotheby’s held four sales this autumn in the Asian market hub, totaling nearly $122m and earning a B- on the HENI Auction Index, compared with a C+ for Christie’s on the same total.

The score was the fourth consecutive improvement in Sotheby’s spring and autumn sales in Hong Kong. This was despite the late withdrawal of a nearly $10m abstract by Rothko.

A white-glove sale of works by the Japanese-French artist Foujita from the collection of British billionaire Joe Lewis helped boost the auction house’s performance.

The single-collection sale, which totaled nearly $8.6m, was led by Le rêve (Hommage à La Fontaine) (1949). It fetched nearly $3.4m, soaring above its low estimate and was acquired by Musée Ando à Karuizawa in Japan, which is dedicated to Foujita’s work. Several other works snapped up in the sale are due to go on loan to a planned exhibition at the Clark Art Institute in 2028.

Sotheby’s strong performance needs to be qualified, however. The $122m total is still a third down on the average of comparable sales when adjusted for inflation. Also, the total number of 200 lots is nearly 25% down on the historic average.

The share of works selling above their low estimates was nearly 4 percentage points below the average of comparable sales, as was the percentage selling above their high estimates. Among the positive metrics was the percentage of lots with strong guarantees, which was up by 2 percentage points on the historic average, while those with weak guarantees were down by 1 percentage point.

Rothko’s Untitled (Plum and Dark Brown) (1964), which had a low estimate of $9.94m, was a conspicuous withdrawal, but overall, they were only up by 1 percentage point, while the share of works that failed to find a buyer and were bought in was 4 percentage points lower than at comparable sales.

The Hong Kong sales will be memorable because of what did sell: the highest price for a work by a Vietnamese artist at auction. Vu Cao Dam's 1939 work, Conversation d'élégantes au jardin, attracted 14 bids before selling for $3.69m with fees, a 250% increase on the artist’s previous record sale.

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