Artists such as Lucy Bull and Oh de Laval helped lift sales totals at Sotheby's and Phillips despite one in ten works failing to sell.
There were no white glove sales in Hong Kong this time around.
Phillips' inaugural auctions at their new Hong Kong headquarters and Sotheby's 50th anniversary evening sales saw measured bidding as the city rebuilds after a long pandemic in the face of economic headwinds. Sotheby's four sales on Wednesday evening realised a combined total of HK$1.52 billion (US $192.8 million) with a sell through rate of 92.4%, a notable drop off from 2021, when the auction house brought in HK $2.1 billion (US $271 million) in three white-glove sales.
The most notable moment's at both auction houses came from young and mid-career artists. At Phillips, Polish painter Oh de Laval (b. 1990), set a new personal record at auction for her macabre work 'The Theatre' (2019) which sold for US $32,360, almost triple the high estimate.
She was joined by: Indonesian pop-culture driven artists Ronald Apriyan, and Arkiv Vilmansa; French painter of airbrushed 'hyperplastic' images César Piette, and UK up-and-comer Hannah Bays; all of whom also set new records.
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