SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG AUTUMN 2007 SALE OF CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART FAR EXCEEDS HIGH ESTIMATE Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Chinese Art sale today realised HK$330,070,246 (US$42,542,754), achieving the new record for a sale of Chinese Contemporary Art.
SOTHEBY’S HONG KONG AUTUMN 2007 SALE
OF CHINESE CONTEMPORARY ART
FAR EXCEEDS HIGH ESTIMATE TOTALING
RECORD HK$330/US$42.54/GB£20.89 MILLION
- RECORDS ESTABLISHED FOR CAI GUO-QIANG, YU CHEN, XU BING, LIU WEI, WANG GUANGYI AND ZHAN WANG -
- 81.3% OF WORKS OFFERED SOLD ABOVE THEIR HIGH ESTIMATES* –
- OVER 95.8% SOLD BY VALUE –
Hong Kong, October 7, 2007 --- Following on from the tremendous success of Sotheby’s New York Contemporary Art Asia sale last month, which brought over US$38 million (then the record sale for the category of Contemporary Asian Art) – Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Chinese Art sale today realised HK$330,070,246 (US$42,542,754), achieving the new record for a sale of Chinese Contemporary Art. This outstanding total, which is over US$14 million more than the pre-sale high estimate (estimate: HK$156–219 million/US$20,128,752–28,339,044), further demonstrates Sotheby’s as global leader in this category. The auction was extremely well attended, attracting over 250 bidders who registered to bid both in the saleroom, which was packed, and over the telephones.
Evelyn Lin, Head of the Contemporary Chinese Art department at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, said: “Today’s results, HK$330,070,246 (US$42,542,754) – the strongest ever achieved at Sotheby’s – continue the truly phenomenal activity in the market for Contemporary Chinese Art which allowed us to achieve record prices for key artists, including Cai Guo-Qiang, Liu Wei, Xu Bing and very strong results for Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang. Enthusiastic collectors, reacting to the quality of artworks which have come for sale in the wake of strong prices, bid in many cases well past presale estimates to acquire works of their choice. What is most impressive is the depth of the bidding throughout all levels of the market which gave us an extremely low unsold rate. Following so closely on Sotheby’s then - record sale of Asian Contemporary Art in New York last month which brought US$38 million (US$10 million above the high estimate), the sale confirms the impressive vitality and confidence of this sector of the auction market.”
The auction, which saw new artists’ records established for Cai Guo-Qiang, Yu Chen and Xu Bing, Liu Wei, Wang Guangyi and Zhan Wang, was highlighted by the sale of The Massacre at Chios by Yue Minjun (b.1962). After six minutes of intense competition between seven bidders both in the saleroom and on the telephones, the work finally sold to applause for HK$31,687,500 (US$4,084,202), nearly four times its pre-sale low estimate. Kevin Ching, CEO Sotheby’s Asia, made the bid on behalf of the successful telephone bidder – an Asian private collector. The painting is regarded as one of the most important produced during the fledgling years of contemporary Chinese art, and an early example of a piece depicting the artist’s characteristic “self-images”. It is among the largest to come onto the market in recent years.
Among the three works in the sale by the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957), his painting Project for Extraterrestrials No.10, Project to Extend the Great Wall of China performed particularly well, achieving a new
