Hong Kong Evening Sales Raise $184.6 Million Amid Buyer Caution

Hong Kong's autumn evening sales generated $184.6 million across Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips between September 28 and 30, a steady rise from the $164.9 million achieved last spring — but the headline figure masks persistent structural strains in Asia's art market.

Unlike the March auctions, which produced two white-glove sales, the autumn season yielded only one, at Christie's. And Christie's reached its perfect sell-through rate only after withdrawing two major lots before the sale: Jonas Wood's Wood Grain Pot 4 (2016) and Cheong Soo Pieng's 1926 Paysage (Landscape).

The broader regional backdrop is uneven. Mainland Chinese equities fell to a 13-month low this month, and the Japanese yen hit a multi-decade low in June. South Korea's economy gained traction on strong semiconductor exports, and Middle Eastern capital has continued flowing into financial centers like Hong Kong and Singapore amid prolonged geopolitical friction.

Commercial galleries are bearing the brunt of China's domestic weakness. Earlier this month, Tang Contemporary abruptly closed its Wong Chuk Hang space in Hong Kong after months of accumulated rent arrears, which the gallery attributed to a sharp contraction in sales.

Sotheby's opens with a Foujita windfall — then falters

Sotheby's fired the first shot on Monday with a single-owner sale of works by Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita from the collection of billionaire Joe Lewis. The auction realized $8.7 million, with 80 percent of the 15 works selling above their high estimates. The top lot, Foujita's 1949 oil-and-ink painting Le rêve (Hommage à La Fontaine), sold for $3.38 million against an estimate of $510,000–$765,000.

The main marquee sale proved rougher. The opening lot, Hu Xiaoyuan's Wood – Rift I, surpassed its high estimate by over 160 percent to fetch $212,080 and set a new auction record for the Chinese artist. Then the second and third lots both failed to sell. The season's announced top lot, Mark Rothko's 1965 Chapel-series Untitled (Plum and Dark Brown), estimated at $9.94 million to $16.3 million, was withdrawn before bidding.

Without the Lewis portion, Sotheby's evening closed at $87.3 million with an 88.5 percent sell-through rate. Including the Lewis sale, the house reported $124.3 million — its highest total since fall 2023. Yoshitomo Nara's 1994 painting Present, last offered at Sotheby's New York in 2004, led the main auction at $9.13 million.

Christie's posts the season's only white-glove sale

At Christie's on Tuesday, underbidding ran strong for European Old Masters and established Asian contemporary artists, from Peter Paul Rubens to Liu Ye. Rubens's Landscape with Willows (1577–1640) drew an intense duel between two phone buyers until Rebecca Yang, Christie's China chairman, brought down the hammer at $1.5 million — 150 percent above its low estimate — prompting applause on the salesroom floor.

Ada Tsui, vice president for Christie's Asia Pacific, highlighted the battle for Liu's work between a Hong Kong–based collector and a Western buyer. "The underbidding activity was remarkably strong, and the Western collector went all out to fight for that piece," she said.

Other marquee lots performed unevenly. Yayoi Kusama's 2011 A-Pumpkin (YHP) hammered at $5.99 million, 2.08 percent below its low estimate and roughly $300,000 less than a comparable painting of identical dimensions at Sotheby's the previous evening. Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild (1991) hammered at $3.568 million, 26 percent short of its low estimate, selling for $4.47 million with premium.

"We took a bit of a risk by bringing this particular Richter work to the evening sale," said Cristian Albu, head of auction and private sales for Christie's Asia Pacific, noting it was the first time Christie's presented a Richter oil-on-wood painting in Asia. He reflected that a dedicated Asian exhibition surveying the artist's full material range might have helped collectors contextualize the work.

On the Kusama result, Tsui was sanguine: "The artist's passing was priced in a long time ago because of her age, and we think this is a very respectable price with the buyer's premium — over $7 million. With sales of very comparable works scheduled back-to-back with our competitor, having multiple clients bidding at that level is encouraging."

Christie's marquee 20th- and 21st-century evening sale ended at $92.6 million, a 28 percent year-on-year increase, though the result was supported by 14 additional lots compared with last year.

Trophies need new money

Yuki Terase, cofounder of the advisory firm Art Intelligence Global, pointed to the season's structural challenge: a tightly packed global calendar of fairs, gallery shows and private inventory confronted post-summer buyers with a sudden influx of choices. "We have a vast pool of collectors who can comfortably and intuitively spend up to a few million dollars, but once you cross into eight figures and above, the buyer pool shrinks dramatically," she told ARTnews.

She cited Jean-Michel Basquiat's Ancient Scientist (1984), sold at Christie's for $9.81 million — the most expensive work at auction in Asia this season — as evidence. Its hammer price of $7.97 million landed just 11.61 percent above the low estimate; the work had previously changed hands in Hong Kong at a joint Phillips and Poly Auction sale in December 2020. Premier eight-figure lots, Terase argued, increasingly depend on unlocking fresh capital and attracting new high-net-worth buyers rather than relying on existing participants.

Phillips resets after leadership exits

At Phillips on Wednesday, the sale marked the house's first Hong Kong evening auction since Asia chairman Jonathan Crockett departed earlier this month amid a global staff exodus. Interim lead Dina Zhang, head of modern and contemporary art for China, dismissed rumors that Phillips might scale back in the region, emphasizing client retention, flexible consignment strategies and category niches larger competitors may overlook.

"I think we remain very competitive in certain categories and within specific price ranges," Zhang told ARTnews. "Whenever we are competing for a major consignment against other houses, I always ask clients to give us a fair shot. Even if we lose the bid, I ask them for transparent feedback so we know the real reason."

Across a lean catalog of 16 lots, Phillips's Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale generated over $6.4 million with an 87.5 percent sell-through rate. The top lot was another Richter, 1983's Abstraktes Bild (522-1), at $2.93 million — about $1.54 million less than the later Sotheby's Richter.

With totals up but trophies thinning and top lots withdrawn, the season suggests Hong Kong's recovery now rests on cultivating new eight-figure buyers rather than waiting for existing ones to return.