“Saturday night starts this evening!” auctioneer Adrien Meyer announced on Friday night, as he opened bidding for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s eye-catching red painting Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night), 1984, at the Henderson, Christie’s Hong Kong headquarters.
This was the first time that the house aligned its marquee evening auction with Art Basel Hong Kong, which opened Wednesday, and the mood at the 90-minute sale corresponded to that of the fair week. Sales were made, big-ticket items mostly found buyers, and while the pace slowed at times, when the right work arrived, bidding intensified. That said, bid increments went as small as HK$30,000 to HK$50,000 ($3,900 to $6,400): even the wealthy are being cautious.
The sale was led by Western blue-chip names and top Asian artists, like Zao Wou-ki and Yayoi Kusama, who both delivered solid results. Most works hammered at their fees-free presale low estimates, or just above it. However, an untitled painting by Kusama, which had a presale estimate of HK$12 million to HK$18 million ($1.5 million to $2.3 million), could not find a buyer.
A mysterious phone bidder, who placed bids via Gabrielle Mak, client relationship director at Christie’s Asia, won three of the evening’s major Western artworks: an 1892 Renoir for HK$34.9 million ($4.5 million), a circa 1962 Magritte goauche La clairvoyance for HK$28.8 million ($3.7 million), and a small 1975–78 Marc Chagall painting for HK$14.9 million ($1.9 million). (All sale prices include fees, unless noted; estimates do not.)
The sale set several artist records. Chinese artist Zhang Enli’s 2002 painting Intimacy fetched a record-making HK$23.4 million ($3 million). Thai artist Gongkan, who was featured in The Asia Pivot‘s Talentspotter section, also achieved a new record with his 2023 painting Flyte, which sold for HK$630,000 ($81,000). Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, whose plush-toys series, “Labubu,” has become a pop culture sensation in Asia, got a new record with the sale of his 2021 painting Excited Plastic for HK$781,200 ($100,500), three times its presale high estimate.
Below, the story by the numbers…
Zhang Enli, Intimacy. Courtesy of Christie’s.
Total Sales After Fees: HK$559.96 million ($72 million)
Total Sales of Equivalent Auction Last Year: There is not a direct analogy to last year’s sales, as Christie’s revamped its Hong Kong schedule when moving from its old location at the city’s convention center to the Henderson. However, last September, the house held its inaugural sale, which totaled HK$1.04 billion ($134 million), with 46 lots offered. Last spring, art auctions took place in May at the house in the form of two back-to-back sales of 20th-century and 21st-century art, which achieved a combined total of HK$743 million ($95.6 million).
Hammer Total: HK$457.3 million ($58.8 million)
Top Seller: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1984 painting Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night). The third-party–guaranteed lot hammered at HK$95 million ($13 million), matching the presale low estimate. With fees, the winning phone bidder will pay HK$112.6 million ($14.5 million), well above the £8.4 million ($10.7 million) it drew at Christie’s London in June 2019.
Lots on Offer: 43
Lots Withdrawn: 2
Lots Sold: 39
Lots Bought In: 2
Sell-through Rate Including Withdrawals: 90.7 percent
Sell-through Rate After Withdrawals: 95 percent
Presale Low Estimate: HK$442.4 million ($56.9 million)
Presale Low Estimate After Withdrawals: HK$432.4 million ($55.6 million)
Hammer Total vs. Presale Low Estimate: +HK$14.8 million (+$1.9 million)
Hammer Total vs. Presale Low Estimate (revised after withdrawals): +HK$24.8 million (+$3.2 million)
Lots Guaranteed: 11
Lots With House Guarantees: 0
Lots With Third-Party Guarantees: 11
Total Low Estimate of Withdrawn Lots: HK$10 million ($1.3 million)
Total Low Estimate of Guaranteed Lots: HK$250.5 million ($32.2 million)
Quote of the Night: “Everyone is late for dinner,” said Taiwanese-born auctioneer Liang-Lin Chen, who took over the gavel from Meyer in the second part of the sale. She cracked this joke while trying to hurry a phone bidder to make up their mind on an untitled 2008 painting by Izumi Kato. Chen’s statement worked like magic, and the phone bidder won with a bid of HK$2 million ($257,100), matching the presale high estimate. The work sold for HK$2.5 million ($324,000) after fees. What is more important than having a nice dinner in the gourmet paradise that is Hong Kong?
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