- Blue & White Anhua Dragon Stem Bowl (HK$50-80m) HK$112.66m
- Yellow-glazed Xuade Bowl (HK$10-15m) HK$27m
- Famille Rose Peach Dish Qianlong (HK$10-15m) HK$19.7m
- Miniature Double-Gourd Doucai Vase (HK$8-12m) HK$15m
Auction Results
0April 04, 2012
Meiyintang Sale III = HK$307m ($39.6m)
Auction Results
0April 03, 2012
Sotheby’s HK Chinese Classical Painting (Highlights)
- Qi Biashi, Willows at the Riverside (HK$15-20m) HK$70m
- Fu Baoshi, Mount Lu (HK$5-7m) HK$24m
- Zhang Daqian, Mountains at Sunset (HK$4-6m) HK$10.5m
- Huang Binhong, Landscape (HK$3.5-5.5m) HK$9m
- Xu Beinhong, Grazing Under a Tree (HK$4-6m) HK$7.8m
- Fu Boashi, Lady Sewing (HK$2.5-4m) HK$7m
- Zhang Daqian, Perching on a Branch (HK$1.2-1.8m) HK$6.4m
- Qi Baishi, Wisteria (HK$1.8-2.5m) HK$5.5m
Auction Results
0April 02, 2012
Sotheby’s HK Southeast Asian Cont = HK$95.9m ($12.37m)
- Walter Spies, Banyan with Two Youg Balinese (HK$6.5-11.5m) HK$9.6m
- Hendra Gunawan, Self Portrait with Child (HK$1.5-2.5m) HK$6m
- Romualdo Locatelli, Portrait of Fu Ku Ko (HK$1.2-1.8m) HK$4.8m
- Ronald Ventura, Humanime (HK$450-680k) HK$3.9m
- Adrien Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres, Balinese Women in the Garden (HK$1.2-2m) HK$3.14m
- Le Pho, Le Rideau Mauve (HK$600-800k) HK$2.9m
- Ahamd Sadali, Abstract Orange (HK$180-250k) HK$2.9m
- But Mochtar, Mother & Child (HK$200-300k) HK$2.5m
- Lee Man Fong, Combing Hair (HK$280-380k) HK$2.4m
- Ay Tjoe Christine, Langit-Langit Merah (HK$240-350k) HK$2.4m
- Ahmad Sadali, Tetas Emas Atas Merah Padas (HK$250-350k) HK$2.3m
- Anita Magsaysay-Ho, MGA Naglalako Ng Manok (HK$900-1.5m) HK$2m
- Ay Tjoe Christine, Bertujuh #1 (HK$200-300k) HK$1.6m
- Cheong Soo Pieng, Untitled (HK$280-380k) HK$1.6m
- Ay Tjoe Christine, Please . . . Adopt This One (HK$200-300k) HK$1.3m
Auction Results
0April 02, 2012
Sotheby’s HK Cont Asia = $211m ($27.3m)
- Zhang Xaiogang, Bloodline, Big Family— Family No. 2 (HK$25-35m) HK$52m
- Fang Lijun, 1993.4 (HK$18-25m) HK$28.6m
- Liu Wei, A Good Dog (HK$12-15m) HK$14m
- Wang Guangyi, Mao Zedong AO (HK$4-6m) HK$8.42m
- Jai Aili, It’s Not Only You Who is Pale (HK$2.5-3.8m)HK$6.6m
- Fang Lijun, 1998 No. 2 (HK$2.5-3.5m) HK$4.46m
- Wang Guangyi, Post-Classical Series, After Mona Lisa (HK$2-3m) HK$4.22m
- Fang Lijun, 1997 No. 11 (HK$3-4m) HK$4.1m
- Fang Lijun, Dream of Peace (HK$2.8-3.5m) HK$4.1m
- Wenda Gu, Drama of Two Culture Formats Merge (HK$1.9-2.5m) HK$3.98m
Emerging Markets
0March 30, 2012
Sotheby’s to Open Hong Kong Offices in Late May
Sotheby’s sent out a release today revealing the location of its new, expanded presence in Hong Kong. The wording of the release suggests the new facility will have its own sale room but the company provides no details and the amount of space they are taking (the equivalent of less than a floor in their New York headquarters) is not very large as auction facilities go:
Sotheby’s is delighted to announce that it will unveil its newly-constructed state-of-the art gallery space in Hong Kong on 19 May, 2012, with opening exhibitions running through the end of May – an exciting month filled with international cultural events in Hong Kong.
This unique, flexible space will be unequalled in Hong Kong, and will afford Sotheby’s the opportunity to regularly host auctions, exhibitions, lectures, special events and other cultural programmes throughout the year, offering a new and exciting dimension to the Sotheby’s experience in Asia.
Comprising the entire 5th Floor of One Pacific Place – over 15,000 square feet – this facility will allow Sotheby’s to significantly expand its business in Asia beyond its traditional twice-annual series of auctions in April and October.
Dealers
0March 02, 2012
White Cube Opens in Hong Kong, Will Artists Follow?
White Cube’s opening in Hong Kong this week has generated a lot of press around the world. Here the BBC says the Southern city is also becoming a place where artists might want to live . . . really?
Graham Steele, the gallery’s Asia director, says the decision to open in Hong Kong was driven by a number of factors, including the ease of doing business in a city where there is no sales tax and the import and export of art work is duty free.
“The energy of the city is very seductive for dealers and artists,” he says. “It’s a scene that’s about to blossom and in a really great way.”
White Cube’s first exhibition will feature the work of British contemporary artists Gilbert & George. High-profile art dealers Larry Gargosian, Ben Brown and Edouard Malingue have also opened gallery spaces in the city over the past two years. [...]
Beijing and Shanghai have arguably more vibrant art scenes that are home to a number of a high-profile Chinese artists such as Ai Wei Wei that generate a lot of attention.
Hong Kong’s artist community, however, is small and high costs mean that artists struggle to find studio space and often have day jobs as architects and designers.
And despite changing perceptions about Hong Kong as a place to produce and exhibit art, the scene is still commercially driven – primarily by China’s newly minted millionaires and billionaires.
They have demonstrated a healthy appetite for the art and antiques of their own country but their demand for the conceptual Western contemporary art sold by the likes of White Cube is less proven, and could dry up if China’s economy slows.
Hong Kong Emerging As Asia’s Art Capital (BBC News)
Emerging Markets, Featured
0January 20, 2012
Sotheby’s Names Two Chinese Bid Defaulters
The Financial Times reports that Sotheby’s Hong Kong office has named two different Chinese buyers who failed to pay for their works of art. One bid this Zao Wou-ki to a record price:
Two people, who both paid deposits, are now being sued by Sotheby’s, which has decided to publicise the writs.
Ma Dong, a man from the Daxing district in Beijing, won three paintings by bidding just under HK$50m in total on October 4 – including one by Zhang Daqian, one of the most respected 20th century Chinese artists. He has yet to pay for any of them, according to the auction house.
On October 3, Ren Chunxia, a woman with an address in Jinan, eastern China, won two oil paintings by the Chinese master Wu Guanzhong with bids of HK$18.6m and HK$26.4m respectively. These were paid for within the standard 30-day limit. However, she has yet to pay for a painting by the abstract artist Zao Wou-ki, which she bid HK$69m for on the same day. That price was a new auction record for the artist and nearly double the high-end of Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate.
Mr Ma has until the middle of February to reply to the writ. The case against Ms Ren was launched in early December and Sotheby’s would not provide any detail on its progress.
Chinese art bidders named in payment dispute (Financial Times)
Collectors
0December 19, 2011
Hong Kong Collectors Go All In on Art
Reuters talks to Kai-yin Lo and some other big Hong Kong collectors who increasingly see art as a safe haven asset:
She is one of Hong Kong’s leading art collectors — her home is stacked with rare Chinese furniture, stone carvings and paintings, including an inkbrush panorama of the Grand Canyon by Chinese 20th century master Wu Guanzhong.
“These days art investment has entered into the mainstream of investment, especially for younger people. You cannot divorce love of the piece from what lies behind, the value of it.”
Emerging Markets
0December 13, 2011
HK: “A Place Waiting to Happen”
SceneAsia interviews one of the key figures in Hong Kong’s Central Police Station museum project:
David Elliott, a British curator and Asian art specialist, is advising on the Central Police Station project. Over his 30-year career, he has directed modern art museums in Tokyo, Stockholm, Istanbul and Oxford and written more than a dozen books, including “Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art.”
“People in Hong Kong are looking for something different,” Mr. Elliott says. “I see my role as setting the whole thing up and programming it to a high international level. I think it can really break the ice.” [...]
What are your impressions of Hong Kong and how the public feels about this project?
It’s a place waiting to happen — everything else is here except a public forum for contemporary culture. It’s been botched, especially in terms of visual art. People are inventing and reinventing politics all the time here. “Heritage” is one of the buzzwords. “Who are we? What is our heritage?” You have the absurd paradox of a colonial jail — a symbol of oppression and possession that the British built — now being a site of collective identity, memory and nostalgia, because everything else has been bulldozed. [...]
You talk about a “sense of place” for art. Can you elaborate?
One of the big messages we have to get across is that value is not the price of something, but its aesthetic quality as art, which is far more important. If art is any good, you can’t really own it, just rent it for a while, because its influence is much larger than any one person’s desire. I believe that people have the right to access the best art of their time.
Central Police Station Curator: ‘If Art Is Any Good, You Can’t Really Own It’ (Wall Street Journal)
