On July 8 and 9, the Phillips auction house held evening and afternoon bidding for 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design in Hong Kong. During two auctions, 150 of the 161 lots displayed in two catalogs were sold, and the total revenue amounted to more than $ 35 million (272 million HKD), 10% higher than the result of similar tenders last year.
Auction catalog 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale was sold at 94%. 130 lots out of 139 went into new hands. Total auction revenue was $ 9.36 million (HKD 72.6 million). This is a record result for day trading in contemporary art in the history of the auction house in Asia. In addition, six individual price records for the work of contemporary artists were set at the daily auction.
The top lot of the day on July 9 was the work “Girl!” by Chinese artist Liu Ye, sold for $ 1 million (7.8 million HKD). This is almost twice the border of the upper estimate.
During the evening auction, held July 8, 2020, buyers acquired 20 of the 22 lots of the auction catalog, which cost their new owners $ 25.7 million (199.45 million HKD). Moreover, most of the proceeds that evening were brought to the auction organizers by the sale of two works by the artist Zao Wou-Ki. His works at the recent Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong brought in $ 41 million.
Both works of the Sino-French artist – compositions “22.6.63” and “24.10.63” from his famous series “Hurricanes” – were bought by one of the bidders for a total of 100 million HKD ($ 12.9 million).
According to media reports, three clients of the auction house participated in the auction for the work of “22.6.63”, which started from 26 million HKD ($ 3.38 million). The fight for the lot became one of the longest and most dramatic struggles of the evening.
It is known that both works come from the Kootz Gallery. Before selling at the Phillips auction, they changed owners only three times. They spent 57 years in possession of one collector.
Despite the impressive Phillips results in Hong Kong, we have reason to expect new price records in the Asian contemporary art segment in the very near future. On July 10, Christie’s hosts its evening auction of contemporary art in Hong Kong.
