Auction
Sotheby’s Contemporary Asian Art sale held in Hong Kong on 5 April ended on positive ground, suggesting recovery in the Asian art market. The sale exceeded the high end of its pre-sale estimate by almost HK$20 million, realizing a total HK$144,881,000 from 129 of the 171 lots on offer. The top lot of the sale was Bright Road (1995) by the Chinese artist Liu Ye, fetching HK$19,140,000 (est. HK$4.5 – 6.5 million) and setting a world record for the artist at auction. It was followed by Cai Guo-Qiang’s seven-panel gunpowder and ink drawing A Certain Lunar-Eclipse – Project For Humankind No.2 (1991) at HK$18,580,000 (est. HK$9 – 15 million). Works by a number of Japanese artists including Aida Makoto, Murakami Takashi, Nara Yoshitomo, and Kusama Yayoi also sold for close to or above their high estimates.
Sotheby’s Contemporary Asian Art
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