Christie's, Phillips and Bonhams have at last started their 2019 sales programme in Hong Kong, two months after the other major auction houses began theirs. Sotheby's, China Guardian, Poly, Council and Seoul Auction organized their first major Hong Kong sessions just after the Art Basel Hong Kong fair. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/894215/wan_jie_zhang_xiaogang_and_thierry_ehrmann.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/817151/Artprice_Logo.jpg This unusual split in the major sales calendar (especially between Christie's and Sotheby's) appears to have benefited the Hong Kong Art Market, which is now more evenly spread over the first half of the year. According to thierry Ehrmann, Artprice's CEO and founder, "one of Hong Kong's major advantages is its capacity to offer an extraordinary mix of works from around the world. In this respect, it is absolutely unique in the world, turning over the best works from China, Japan and all of Southeast Asia, but also from Europe and the United States. Phillips' recent evening sale included works by Zao Wou-Ki, Roy Lichtenstein, Zhang Xiaogang, Yoshitimo Nara and Andy Warhol. The selection was both prestigious and universal… a perfect reflection of the wealth of the Hong Kong marketplace. That's why all the big auction houses, both Chinese and American, want to be there." Indeed, this year, Hong Kong's attractiveness convinced the Guangzhou-based auctioneer Holly's International to expand its activities there. Founded in 1994, Holly's has organised no less than seven sales in Hong Kong for the end of May 2019… its first venture into the city since it began operations. Zao Wou-Ki reigns supreme The best results at Christie's and Phillips were, unsurprisingly, generated by the Franco-Chinese painter Zao Wou-Ki. Since his massive record of $57.5 million last September, the master of lyrical abstraction has joined the giants of the art market, taking third place in Artprice's 2018 auction turnover ranking, just behind Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet. The eight Zao Wou-Ki paintings offered for sale by Christie's on 25 May 2019 generated $50 million, accounting for 45% of the sale's total turnover. It was a remarkable performance, but it could have been better because the best piece among the eight, a large oil on canvas titled 02/01/65, failed to sell. No doubt the on-demand estimate was above $30 million, a value that is consistent with the latest results, but which in view of the rapid inflation of Zao Wou- Ki's prices, might take a little longer to prevail on the market. In 2010, the same work was acquired for just $2.7 million. Success confirmed for Kaws and Richard Lin The sales organised by Sotheby's at the beginning of April 2019 were particularly marked by the unexpected record for the American street artist Kaws. Estimated between $800,000 and $1 million, his painting The Kaws Album (2005) reached a staggering $14.8 million (including fees). The new star of the Perrotin and Skarstedt galleries has had an exceptional start to the year on the secondary market. Phillips generated a thirteenth result above the $1 million line with Half Full (2012). Acquired in New York at Christie's in March 2018 for $444,500, this acrylic on canvas was resold for $1.4 million in Hong Kong, just 14 months later. The abstract painter Richard Lin (1933-2011) also generated substantially buoyant results. Seven years after his death, interest in his work renewed his auction record three times in 2018. On 27 May 2019 his painting 1.3.1964 - Painting Relief dominated Bonhams' Contemporary & Modern Art sale. Prices stabilise for works by Contemporary Chinese artists The prices of Chinese painters born in the 1950s are firming in Hong Kong. Without setting new records (set five or six years ago for most of them), this generation of new Chinese masters of the oil painting medium is enjoying strong demand in Asia... and reassuring collectors. On 25 May, Zeng Fanzhi's painting Mask (1996) sold just under $3 million at Christie's, far below the $23 million recorded in 2013 for his much larger canvas The Last Supper (2001), a value he has never come close to since then... Similarly, and on the same day, Zhang Xiaogang's Bloodline Series: The Big Family No. 10 (2000) sold for $1.6 million. In 2014 his Bloodline: The Big Family No.3 (1995) from the same series fetched over $12 million. In view of these results, we are clearly seeing a price consolidation on works by Chinese artists from this generation: their values are tending to stabilise at very high levels. This trend has been confirmed, among other signs, by three successive results for Zhou Chunya's painting Stone Series - The Tree Connected to Stone (1993): $246,000 - 9 October 2006 (Sotheby's Hong Kong) $6,700,000 - 5 April 2014 (Sotheby's Hong Kong) $4,100,000 - 25 May 2019 (Christie's Hong Kong) Copyright ©2019 thierry Ehrmann – www.artprice.com Try our services (free demo): https://www.artprice.com/artist/23640/baishi-qi Subscribe to our services: https://www.artprice.com/subscription About Artprice: Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF. Founded by thierry Ehrmann (see Who's who certified Biography ) (c) https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2019/03/2019-bio-whoswho-thierry-ehrmann.pdf). Discover Artprice in video: https://www.artprice.com/video Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databanks. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 700,000 artists. Artprice Images® gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 126 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians. Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information from 6,300 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the world's principal news agencies and approximately 7,200 international press publications. For its 4,500,000 members, Artprice gives access to the world's leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art. Artprice is preparing its blockchain for the Art Market. It is BPI-labelled (scientific national French label) Artprice's Global Art Market Annual Report for 2018 published last March 2019: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-art-market-in-2018 Artprice is associated with Artron Group the Chinese leader in the Art Market, its solid institutional partner. About the Artron Group: "Artron Art Group (Artron), a comprehensive cultural industrial group founded in 1993 by Wan jie, is committed to inheriting, enhancing and spreading art value. Based on abundant art data, Artron provides art industry and art fans with professional service and experience of quality products by integrated application of IT, advanced digital science and innovative crafts and materials. Having produced more than 60,000 books and auction catalogues, Artron is the world's largest art book printer with a total print volume of 300 million a year. 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Artron's Web: www.Artron.net Artprice's Contemporary Art Market Annual Report for 2018 - free access at: https://www.artprice.com/artprice-reports/the-contemporary-art-market-report-2018 Artprice's press releases: http://serveur.serveur.com/Press_Release/pressreleaseen.htm https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom Artmarket News: https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom & https://twitter.com/artmarketdotcom https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom 4,3 million subscribers http://artmarketinsight.wordpress.com/ Discover the Alchemy and the universe of Artprice http://web.artprice.com/video, which headquarters are the famous Museum of Contemporary Art, the Abode of Chaos: https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013 https://vimeo.com/124643720 The Contemporary Art Museum The Abode of Chaos https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999 3.8 million subscribers Contact: thierry Ehrmann, ir@artprice.com SOURCE: Artprice