FollowSotheby’s “Curated: Turn It Up” auction on 8 June 2018 closed with an achieved total of HKD47.7 million (USD6 million) and 100% of pieces offered sold.
Art Radar looks at the key figures and results of the specially curated auction in Hong Kong.
“Curated: Turn It Up” at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 June 2018, auction scene. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
Sotheby’s “Curated: Turn It Up” auction in Hong Kong saw a great success, with all of the 102 pieces offered finding buyers, doubling pre-sale estimates and 78 percent of lots sold above their high estimates. Works across medium by artists Nara Yoshitomo, George Condo and KAWS were sold for multiples of their estimates.
The auction aimed at catering to the taste of young Asian collectors, offering a diverse span of art works with estimates from under HKD60,000 to HKD8 million. The top lot of the evening was Yayoi Kusama’s Untitled (Pumpkin Sculpture)(2007), sold at HKD11.4 million (USD1.5 million) to a European private buyer. The second highest lot of the evening was George Condo’s Young Girl (2007), acquired at HKD3.24 million (USD413,003) by an Asian private buyer, around 4.6 times its high estimate.
(Left) Murakami Takashi, ‘Hollow’, 2014, acrylic on canvas; (right) Kusama Yayoi, ‘Untitled (Pumpkin Sculpture)’, 2007, urethane on FRP. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
George Condo, ‘Young Girl’, 2007, oil on canvas. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
Yayoi Kusama had a total of four works in the top ten, while George Condo had two. The list of top 10 also included a 1996 acrylic on cotton work entitled No.1 and a woodcut print with collage from 2012, Untitled (Eye Patch) by Yoshitomo Nara, the 2012 acrylic on canvas Make the Run by KAWS and Takashi Murakami‘s 2014 acrylic on canvas Hollow. Eight of the top ten lots were bought by Asian private buyers, while the rest were sold to European private buyers.
Nara Yoshitomo, ‘Untitled (Eye Patch)’, 2012, woodcut print with collage, 40/50. Image courtesy Sotheby’s.
There was also a noticeably strong participation from young collectors. Yuki Terase, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art, Asia, was quoted in the closing press release as commenting:
Curated to reflect the taste of today’s young collectors, the sale saw incredibly robust interest from this rising community across Asia and beyond. We are elated at the results, which are a testament not only to the fast-growing collecting vigour of young Asian art lovers, but also to Sotheby’s unrivalled understanding of this market. We look forward to our next Contemporary Art sale in Hong Kong during the Autumn Sale Week.
Gabrielle Cheng
2230
Related Topics: Asian artists, art auctions, market watch, business of art, events in Hong Kong, round-ups
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