Live auctions in Hong Kong and New York saw eager buyers, with the usual blue-chip artists securing premium prices. However, a number of much-vaunted lots fell short of expectations.
HONG KONG
After a delayed and whittled-down four-sale series last July and eight live sales in December, Poly Auction rebounded this April 21–24 with 11 live sales of antiquities, fine art, liquor, rare tea, jewels, and other luxury goods at its Pacific Place gallery. The 96-lot Modern and Contemporary Art sale raised USD 34.4 million, with nine lots unsold, and was headlined by Yoshitomo Nara’s (2007), a shack containing the portrait and acrylic-on-wood-panel . The installation’s USD 15.4 million price tag is the second-highest achieved by the popular Japanese artist at auction, and (1960), a one-meter-high, fiery-hued abstraction from his sought-after early period, and contemporary star Liu Ye’s USD 954,000 (1995), a square canvas of a cherub standing beneath a Piet Mondrian-esque geometric painting. Both lots fell short of their respective high estimates of USD 8.33 million and USD 1 million. Poly’s Fine Modern Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy sale was led by Qi Baishi’s ink-and-color-on-paper (1937), representing one of the master’s classic subjects. The 137-centimeter-long hanging scroll surpassed its USD 705,000 high estimate to fetch USD 846,000.
