President of Christie’s Asia Pacific, Rahul Kadakia, speaks to reporters at The Henderson in Central, Hong Kong, on March 24. [LEE JIAN]

 

HONG KONG — A white glove sale.

 

The auction jargon refers to the rare event that an auction sells 100 percent of its offered items, implying that because every item on sale found a buyer, the staff do not have to get their hands dirty returning items to storage.

 


And in that sense, no hands will be getting grimy after Christie’s Hong Kong 20th/21st-century high-profile evening sale on Friday. Selling all of its 37 artworks, the result marks a robust start to the auction house’s year in Asia and bolsters the hopeful narrative of the art market’s comeback from its post-Covid slump. 

 

The auction generated 655,761,600 Hong Kong dollars, or $83,802,193, including the buyer’s premium, the additional fee charged by auction houses to winning bidders. This year’s total was 17 percent higher than that of last year’s same March sale.

 

“That was a magnificent auction on our 40th anniversary year in Hong Kong, selling through 100 percent. What a room that was. The energy was great,” President of Christie’s Asia Pacific, Rahul Kadakia, told reporters during the post-sale news conference at The Henderson in Central, Hong Kong, on Friday.

 

Auctioneer Adrien Meyer proceeds the bidding of Sanyu’s “Cheval agenouillé sur un tapis” (1950s-60s) during Christie’s Hong Kong 20th/21st Century Evening Sale at The Henderson in Central, Hong Kong, on March 27. [CHRISTIE’S]

 

He also highlighted the hammer prices that were 117 percent above the low estimate — the minimum price the auction house expected the item to sell for — as not only an indicator of a successful Christie’s sale but also a meaningful signal of a rebounding art market.

 

“Success of an auction also depends on how much better it does against the low estimate of the piece, and the fact that the sale was almost 120 percent higher against that estimate is a good sign of the healthiness of the market for clients paying above low estimates and actively chasing works of art at the auction,” said Kadakia. 

 

Gerhard Richter’s “Abstraktes Bild,” a 1991 scarlet abstract painting, led the sale at $11.8 million. One of 27 works in the namesake series, this is the second largest “Abstraktes Bild” that Richter created. Its sale on Friday was its auction debut — it was previously owned by Galerie Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert in Paris and subsequently acquired by a private collection in France in 1991 before being sold to an unnamed owner in 2015.

 

The painting, however, sold about $255,000 below the low estimate on the hammer. “It was still a solid sale that we are happy about,” responded Ada Tsui, head of the 20th/21st Century Art Department at Christie’s Asia Pacific. 

 

Sanyu’s “Cheval agenouillé sur un tapis” (1950s-60s), a nod to the Year of the Horse, realized $8.2 million after heated competition on multiple telephones. The work was last seen in the market half a century ago, from the Lévy family — Sanyu’s major patron — collection.

 

Walter Spies’ Balinese landscape “Blick Von Der Höhe (A View From the Heights)” realized $7.5 million, breaking the artist’s world auction record.

 

Korean artists Lee Ufan, Rhee Seund-ja (1918-2009) and Lee Bae were also included in the evening’s lot.

 

Lee Ufan’s “From Line” (1978), a meditative monochrome painting comprising 29 cobalt blue, vertical lines, fetched $1.27 million. Rhee’s “Une anémone sauvage (A Wild Anemone)” (1962) was realized at $730,250 and Lee Bae’s “Brushstroke-9F” (2023) at $308,329.  

 

Lee Bae’s “Brushstroke-9F” (2023) [LEE JIAN]

 

For the first time, an Old Master painting was included in the Hong Kong Evening Sale — a still-life by 17th-century Dutch artist Johannes Goedaert broke the artist’s world auction record when it sold for $1,298,384, more than double the lowest demand, as Christie’s vows to expand the market and introduce new categories to the region.

 

“It’s the first time we’re putting [an] Old Master in our sales, and I don’t think it’s going to be the last time,” said Deputy Chairman, Head of Contemporary Art in the Asia Pacific, Cristian Albu.

 

The highlights of the following day’s sales on Saturday included Christine Ay Tjoe’s “…to See the White Land” realized at $2.2 million and  Zao Wou-ki’s “18.03.63” realized at $1.9 million. Evening and day sales combined, Christie’s Hong Kong sold through 94 percent of its lots in the 20th/21st-century art category in its 2026 spring edition. 

 

Tsui said that she was grateful for the diversity of the leading lots in the sale, citing Western postwar artist Richter, China’s pioneering painter Sanyu, the traditional Vincent van Gogh and second-generation
dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) Korean artist  Lee Bae.

 

“We also saw bids from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia,” she said, and reconfirmed, “In every market, there is an opportunity.” 

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]