The art market downturn continued to play out at Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong this past weekend, with the turnover from back-to-back art auctions loitering at an eight-year low.
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But a handful of records and some last-minute withdrawals – which improved the success ratio of the sales – helped inject long-missing vigour into the sales room during the seasonal marquee modern and contemporary art evening sales, which saw around 100 high-value artworks go under the hammer across the three venues.
On September 26, Christie’s fired the first salvo with Mattino di primavera (Spring Morning), a 2007 work by, coincidentally, Salvo, an Italian artist who went by one name.
The relatively modest starting price of HK$500,000 (US$64,000) saw bids coming in fast and furious for the first lot of the auction. It eventually sold for HK$4 million (HK$5 million including fees), five times higher than the lowest estimate.
The first lot in Phillips’ evening sale on Saturday – Basic Knot (2016) by Firenze Lai – also drew plenty of bids. The work on paper by the Hong Kong-born artist, now represented by White Cube gallery, sold for HK$477,300, nearly four times the lowest estimate.
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