An abstract painting of falling snow by Chinese artist Chu Teh-chun (朱德群) fetched a record US$5.9 million in Hong Kong, the surprise top lot of an auction that saw bidders vie for the priciest artworks.
Vertige Neigeux, an oil-on-canvas diptych that took France-based Chu about a decade to complete, topped estimates and went to an unidentified Asian private buyer. There was a five-minute tussle among bidders on the phone and in the packed hall of about 400 people at Christie’s International evening sale of 20th-century and contemporary Asian works on Sunday night. Including the daytime auctions of modern and ink Chinese paintings, the company tallied US$79 million yesterday.
“Works by established Chinese artists such as Chu and Zao Wou-ki (趙無極) are the most sought-after; they are driving prices,” Anthony Lin, a Hong Kong-based art consultant, said in an interview after the sale, at the harbor-front convention center.
Chinese buyers drove prices higher. Inflation concerns in China and a sagging US dollar are driving the Chinese to convert currencies into assets such as art. They are choosing pieces by living masters such as Chu and deceased artists Fu Baoshi (傅抱石) and Xu Beihong (徐悲鴻) because they are more likely to retain value than contemporary works by Chinese artists in their 30s and 40s.
A 1944 scroll of ink-and-color on paper by Fu (1904-1965) called Landscape Inspired by Dufu’s Poetic Sentiments fetched an artist record of US$7.7 million in the day sale. In the evening, a 1950s blue, white and pink oil painting of potted flowers by the late Chinese master Sanyu (1901-1966), the cover lot and tipped by Christie’s to fetch the highest price, sold for US$4.5 million, against a presale estimate of US$1.5 million.
Almost every painting by Paris-based abstract Chinese artist Zao did well. His blue-and-white 19-11-59 sold for US$3.9 million, more than twice the presale estimate. Zao’s orange-hued 05-03-76 fetched US$1 million, against a US$1.3 million estimate.
“The huge price gap between these two like-sized paintings by Zao shows buyers have matured and are focused on the best works by an artist,” said Eric Chang, head of Christie’s Asia contemporary and Chinese 20th-century art department.
Sunday’s auction showed prices of Chinese contemporary art, while trailing those of older paintings by a wide margin, are starting to recover, said Lin.
Zeng Fanzhi’s (曾凡志) 1994, oil painting, Untitled (Hospital Series), the star Chinese contemporary lot at the evening sale that was expected to fetch as much as US$1.5 million, sold for US$2.5 million after fierce competition involving Wang Wei (王薇), wife of millionaire Chinese stock-investor Liu Yiqian (劉益謙), and one other auction-room bidder.
Wang lost, though she won other lots at the evening sale, including Liu Ye’s (劉野) scarlet-and-pink acrylic-on-canvas I Always Wanted to be a Sailor, for which she paid US$930,000, against a presale top estimate of US$774,000.
Saturday, the first day of the five-day auction, Christie’s sold US$5.2 million of wine, including a 78-bottle lot of 1999 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, which fetched US$186,000.
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