FOUR LOTS ACHIEVED OVER HK$100M / US$12.9M
TOP LOT OF THE NIGHT
Four-Way Ten-Minute Bidding Battle Takes Sanyu’s Quatre Nus To HK$258m / US$33.3m
FIRST WORK BY CHU TEH-CHUN TO CROSS HK$100M MARK, SETS NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ARTIST
Les eléments confédérés, the Artist’s Only Pentaptych, Soars to HK$114m / US$14.7m
ZAO WOU-KI WHIPS UP A STORM IN THE SALEROOM, SEVEN PAINTINGS ARE 100% SOLD
For a Combined Total of HK$318.5m / US$41m, Led by The Artist’s ‘Hurricane Period’ Masterpieces 20.03.60 And 19.11.59, Sold Respectively for HK$115m / US$14.8m and HK$111m / US$14.3m
SIX AUCTION RECORDS
For Guan Zilan, Pang Jiun, Chen Ting-Shih and more
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Tonight, Sotheby’s Modern Art Evening Sale - the first flagship evening sale of year in Hong Kong - realised HK$826 million / US$107 million – the second highest total for the category ever achieved at Sotheby’s. A total of six auction records were set throughout the evening, with four lots achieving over HK$100m / US$12.9m.
A ten-minute bidding battle between four determined collectors drove the final sale price of Sanyu’s Quatre nus to HK$258m / US$33.3m. Bidding opened at HK$160m and climbed in steady increments, with two bidders pushing each other ever higher before going to a bidder on the phone. Chu Teh-Chun’s monumental Les éléments confédérés, the artist’s only pentaptych, soared to HK$114m / US$14.7m after a five-minute, four-way bidding battle, a price besting the artist’s previous HK$91.8 million record. Seven paintings by Zao Wou-Ki were 100% sold for a combined total of HK$318.5m / US$41m, led by the artist’s ‘Hurricane Period’ masterpieces 20.03.60 and 19.11.59, which brought respectively HK$115m / US$14.8m and HK$111m / US$14.3m.
The stellar result of tonight’s sale is testament to the market’s undiminished appetite for top quality masterpieces. Clients who were not able to join us in person this season were enthusiastically bidding on the telephones – translating into an exceptionally strong auction total, with some stand-out individual results, and new auction records for a number of artists including for Chu Teh-Chun – a fitting tribute in the year that marks the centenary of the artist’s birth. To set a new benchmark for Sanyu with another of his iconic masterpieces, across two consecutive seasons, is a measure of the artist’s stature among collectors. We were equally thrilled with the results for seven masterpieces by Zao Wou-Ki, whose market we continue to take pride in leading.
SIX AUCTION RECORDS INCLUDING FOUR ARTIST AUCTION RECORDS:
Chu Teh-Chun’s Les éléments confédérés
Sale price: HK$113,688,000 / US$14,678,000
Guan Zilan’s Portrait of a Young Girl
Sale price: HK$9,775,000 / US$1,261,268
Pang Jiun’s Monet’s Garden
Sale price: HK$7,375,000 / US$951,596
Chen Ting-Shih’s Four Seasons
Sale price: HK$1,500,000 / US$387,090
OTHER AUCTION RECORDS:
Chu Teh-Chun’s La Lune
Sale price: HK$4,735,000 / US$610,957
*Chu Teh-Chun Calligraphy Record
Sanyu’s Femme nue etendue
Sale price: HK$12,175,000 / US$1,570,940
*Sanyu Oil Painting on Mirror Record
