Les canots amarrés by Vincent van Gogh
On Thursday, September 26th, Christie’s hosted one of its 20th/21st Century evening sales from their brand new location in Hong Kong. Christie’s has been operating in Hong Kong since 1986, but last week marked the first round of sales at their new headquarters in the Henderson skyscraper, designed by Zaha Hadid. The sale contained a good mix of European and Asian art, with one painting drawing a lot of attention in the months leading up to the auction. Les canots amarrés by Vincent van Gogh has been in the same collection for over thirty years. It last sold at Sotheby’s London in 1991 for £1.43 million w/p (or about £3.2 million / $4.3 million in 2024) to the Italian billionaire Camillo Crociani and his wife, the actress Edy Vessel. According to the lot information, the seller at the Hong Kong sale was “a family trust represented by the Royal Family of Bourbon-Two Sicilies” (Camillo and Edy’s daughter Camilla married Prince Carlo, one of the two claimants to head the Bourbon-Two Sicilies family). The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a branch of the Bourbon family, having ruled over Sicily and southern Italy between 1759 and 1861.
Van Gogh created the painting during his two years in Paris, and it is said to be part of a trio of paintings he made in the summer of 1887 while staying in Asnières, a suburb just northwest of the city. Les canots amarrés was predicted by Christie’s to smash the artist’s auction record in Asia, a distinction previously held by the 1886 still life Vase aux Glaïeuls, which sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2021 for HK$71 million w/p (or $9.1 million). Of course, the painting was guaranteed and assigned a far higher estimate, so the record-breaking was more of a foregone conclusion. The Van Gogh came close to its HK$230 million low estimate, but fell slightly short at HK$215 million / $27.6 million (or HK$250.6 million / $32.2 million w/p).
Nymphéas by Claude Monet
The only other work available at Christie’s that their specialists predicted would sell in excess of HK$200 million was one of Monet’s water lilies. Unlike other examples from the series, this painting has never been part of a museum or gallery collection. After Monet’s death, it passed to his son Michel, and has spent his entire life in private collections ever since. The painting is pleasant enough, and despite its stamped signature, the persisting popularity of the artist’s water lilies series resulted in the present work receiving an estimate range of HK$200 million to HK$280 million. It eventually hammered at the low estimate, equivalent to around $25.7 million (or HK$233.4 million / $30 million w/p). Like the Van Gogh, it also set Monet’s auction record in Asia, previously held by Route de Monte-Carlo, sold this past April at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $7.8 million w/p.
And finally, coming in third was the 1980 triptych by the Chinese painter Zao Wou-Ki. Zao was an abstract painter who, starting in the 1940s, began primarily living and working in Europe. Despite recognition by prominent European abstract artists like Picasso, Zao’s work has yet to gain broader recognition in the West. While he is one of the most popular artists in the Asian market, very few of his high-value works have sold outside of Hong Kong. The highest price achieved by one of his paintings in a Western saleroom is a painting called Ville Arabe, which sold at Sotheby’s Paris in 2021 for €4.4 million w/p (or $5.4 million). According to ArtNet’s database, that painting is number 78 on the list of the artist’s most expensive works sold at auction. It has only been in the past few years that auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been using their Hong Kong locations to sell “blue chip paintings” by prominent Western artists, mostly to bolster their presence in Asia. As a result, though, Zao’s work may become increasingly popular among European and North American buyers. The triptych, dated and titled 05.06.80, sold slightly above its HK$78 million low estimate, hammering at HK$80 million / $10.3 million (or HK$95.4 million / $12.3 million w/p).
05.06.80 by Zao Wou-Ki
There are often not many surprises with high-profile evening sales such as this. However, a moment towards the end of the sale injected a bit of energy into the increasingly listless auction. Lot 36 out of 46 was a rather large painting by the contemporary Filipino artist Ronald Ventura. State of Bloom, an oil on canvas meant to look like a collage, measures exactly 8-by-12 feet and was created only three years ago. The bidding started at HK$1.6 million, but the first bid from a telephone bidder immediately brought it up to HK$3 million, exceeding the HK$2.8 million high estimate. Despite the bold move, that did not dissuade some of the other potential buyers as the price steadily increased to HK$5 million after just 80 seconds of bidding. After four minutes, the price was up to HK$15 million, with the winning bid of HK$30 million ($3.9 million; or HK$36.7 million / $4.7 million w/p) coming in after just under eight minutes, setting a new auction record for the artist at over ten times the presale high estimate.
Christie’s did rather well that evening in inaugurating their new Hong Kong headquarters. Of the forty-three available lots, twenty-one sold within their estimates, giving Christie’s specialists a phenomenal 49% accuracy rate. Eleven (26%) sold below estimate, while eight (19%) sold above. Only three lots went unsold, giving the sale a 93% sell-through rate. Against a presale total estimate range of HK$852.4 million and HK$1.3 billion, the 20th/21st century sale just barely reached over the minimum at HK$865.4 million / $111.2 million.
Christie’s Hong Kong 20th/21st Century Sale
Les canots amarrés by Vincent van Gogh
On Thursday, September 26th, Christie’s hosted one of its 20th/21st Century evening sales from their brand new location in Hong Kong. Christie’s has been operating in Hong Kong since 1986, but last week marked the first round of sales at their new headquarters in the Henderson skyscraper, designed by Zaha Hadid. The sale contained a good mix of European and Asian art, with one painting drawing a lot of attention in the months leading up to the auction. Les canots amarrés by Vincent van Gogh has been in the same collection for over thirty years. It last sold at Sotheby’s London in 1991 for £1.43 million w/p (or about £3.2 million / $4.3 million in 2024) to the Italian billionaire Camillo Crociani and his wife, the actress Edy Vessel. According to the lot information, the seller at the Hong Kong sale was “a family trust represented by the Royal Family of Bourbon-Two Sicilies” (Camillo and Edy’s daughter Camilla married Prince Carlo, one of the two claimants to head the Bourbon-Two Sicilies family). The House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a branch of the Bourbon family, having ruled over Sicily and southern Italy between 1759 and 1861.
Van Gogh created the painting during his two years in Paris, and it is said to be part of a trio of paintings he made in the summer of 1887 while staying in Asnières, a suburb just northwest of the city. Les canots amarrés was predicted by Christie’s to smash the artist’s auction record in Asia, a distinction previously held by the 1886 still life Vase aux Glaïeuls, which sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2021 for HK$71 million w/p (or $9.1 million). Of course, the painting was guaranteed and assigned a far higher estimate, so the record-breaking was more of a foregone conclusion. The Van Gogh came close to its HK$230 million low estimate, but fell slightly short at HK$215 million / $27.6 million (or HK$250.6 million / $32.2 million w/p).
Nymphéas by Claude Monet
The only other work available at Christie’s that their specialists predicted would sell in excess of HK$200 million was one of Monet’s water lilies. Unlike other examples from the series, this painting has never been part of a museum or gallery collection. After Monet’s death, it passed to his son Michel, and has spent his entire life in private collections ever since. The painting is pleasant enough, and despite its stamped signature, the persisting popularity of the artist’s water lilies series resulted in the present work receiving an estimate range of HK$200 million to HK$280 million. It eventually hammered at the low estimate, equivalent to around $25.7 million (or HK$233.4 million / $30 million w/p). Like the Van Gogh, it also set Monet’s auction record in Asia, previously held by Route de Monte-Carlo, sold this past April at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $7.8 million w/p.
And finally, coming in third was the 1980 triptych by the Chinese painter Zao Wou-Ki. Zao was an abstract painter who, starting in the 1940s, began primarily living and working in Europe. Despite recognition by prominent European abstract artists like Picasso, Zao’s work has yet to gain broader recognition in the West. While he is one of the most popular artists in the Asian market, very few of his high-value works have sold outside of Hong Kong. The highest price achieved by one of his paintings in a Western saleroom is a painting called Ville Arabe, which sold at Sotheby’s Paris in 2021 for €4.4 million w/p (or $5.4 million). According to ArtNet’s database, that painting is number 78 on the list of the artist’s most expensive works sold at auction. It has only been in the past few years that auction houses like Christie’s and Sotheby’s have been using their Hong Kong locations to sell “blue chip paintings” by prominent Western artists, mostly to bolster their presence in Asia. As a result, though, Zao’s work may become increasingly popular among European and North American buyers. The triptych, dated and titled 05.06.80, sold slightly above its HK$78 million low estimate, hammering at HK$80 million / $10.3 million (or HK$95.4 million / $12.3 million w/p).
05.06.80 by Zao Wou-Ki
There are often not many surprises with high-profile evening sales such as this. However, a moment towards the end of the sale injected a bit of energy into the increasingly listless auction. Lot 36 out of 46 was a rather large painting by the contemporary Filipino artist Ronald Ventura. State of Bloom, an oil on canvas meant to look like a collage, measures exactly 8-by-12 feet and was created only three years ago. The bidding started at HK$1.6 million, but the first bid from a telephone bidder immediately brought it up to HK$3 million, exceeding the HK$2.8 million high estimate. Despite the bold move, that did not dissuade some of the other potential buyers as the price steadily increased to HK$5 million after just 80 seconds of bidding. After four minutes, the price was up to HK$15 million, with the winning bid of HK$30 million ($3.9 million; or HK$36.7 million / $4.7 million w/p) coming in after just under eight minutes, setting a new auction record for the artist at over ten times the presale high estimate.
Christie’s did rather well that evening in inaugurating their new Hong Kong headquarters. Of the forty-three available lots, twenty-one sold within their estimates, giving Christie’s specialists a phenomenal 49% accuracy rate. Eleven (26%) sold below estimate, while eight (19%) sold above. Only three lots went unsold, giving the sale a 93% sell-through rate. Against a presale total estimate range of HK$852.4 million and HK$1.3 billion, the 20th/21st century sale just barely reached over the minimum at HK$865.4 million / $111.2 million.