The art world descended on Hong Kong last week for Art Basel, as well as dozens of ancillary exhibitions, openings, and auctions. News of six- and seven-figure deals began flowing in almost as soon as the convention center doors opened, though not every dealer benefited equally from the expanding Asian art market. In particular, a number of midsize and regional galleries reported a slower pace of sales than their deeper-pocketed counterparts.

Sales reports are, of course, slippery in the art world. Some purchases may have been finalized long before the fair, while others might only be handshake deals, still waiting on paperwork and cash. Hong Kong, in particular, is a city where sales can take longer to consummate than they might elsewhere.

But prices themselves are more reliably telling. They provide a snapshot of where individual artists stand in the matrix of the art market today (even if some dealers occasionally offer inflated figures). Meanwhile, some dealers prefer to report ranges or the “asking price,” to obscure the actual selling price or to cover up favorable treatment that one buyer may have received over another.

PAINTINGS

George Condo’s Russian Girl (2006). Courtesy of Almine Rech.

$550,000–$35 million

$35 million: Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XII (1975) sold at Lévy Gorvy just hours into the fair’s first day

$2.4 million: The asking price for a work by Lucio Fontana, which sold at Tornabuoni Art

$1.5–2 million: George Condo’s Russian Girl (2006) at Almine Rech

$1.5–1.7 million: Lee Ufan’s With Winds (1987) from Seoul-based Kukje Gallery

$1 million: Neo Rauch’s painting Der Türmer (2017) at David Zwirner

$685,000: Georg Baselitz’s 1959 in Berlin (2016) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$650,000: Robert Longo’s Untitled (Rose, November 22, 2017) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$615,000: A 1988 painting by Hans Hartung at Tornabuoni Art

$600,000: A.R. Penck’s Standart-West KO (1981) at Michael Werner Gallery

$600,000 each: Michaël Borremans‘s The Entrance (2016) and Fire From the Sun (Two Figures) at David Zwirner

$600,000: Robert Rauschenberg’s Wolf Wood (Urban Bourbon) at Pace Gallery

$600,000: Giorgio de Chirico‘s Le Muse Inquietanti (1951) at Mazzoleni Gallery

$550,000: Alex Katz’s new painting, Coca-Cola Girl 12 (2018) at Thaddaeus Ropac

$100,000–$500,000

$500,000 each: Six paintings by Pat Steir from the series “For Hong Kong” at Lévy Gorvy

$400,000: Oscar Murillo’s dia mundial de las aves migratorias (2017–18) at David Zwirner

$300,000: Zhang Xiaogang’s The Boy Standing On a Chair (2017) at Pace Gallery

$300,000: Lisa Yuskavage’s Centaur (2017) at David Zwirner

$250,000–300,000: Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 17-17 at Kukje Gallery

$250,000: Sterling Ruby’s HEX (2017) at Sprüth Magers

$250,000: Lee Ufan’s painting Dialogue (2017) at Lisson Gallery

$220,000: A painting by Huang Yuanqing at Pearl Lam Galleries

$215,000: A painting by Rashid Johnson at Hauser & Wirth

$200,000: Joyce Pensato’s Majestic Batman (2017) at Petzel

$175,000: Robert Colescott’s painting 2×4, 1977 at Blum & Poe

$150,000–200,000 each: Two paintings by Hernan Bas at Lehmann Maupin

$140,000: Jennifer Guidi’s diptych All or Nothing (2018) at David Kordansky

$135,000: Mary Corse’s Untitled (Multiband with White Sides, Beveled) at Lisson

$150,000: A mixed-media work by Rashid Johnson, Untitled Broken Men (2018) at David Kordansky Gallery

$150,000: Stanley Whitney’s The Big Easy (2016) at Lisson Gallery

$100,000 and Under

$100,000–300,000: Frog King’s Fire Painting from 1979 sold at 10 Chancery Lane

$100,000–150,000: OSGEMEOS’s The history of the countryside (2017) at Lehmann Maupin

$100,000–150,000: Mary Corse’s Untitled (White, Black Band, Beveled) (2017) at Lehmann Maupin

$100,000 each: Stanley Whitney’s Untitled (2018), and Fela (2017) at Lisson

$100,000: Joyce Pensato’s Black and White Mickey (2018) at Lisson Gallery

$84,000: An ink-and-acrylic work by Zheng Chongbin at Ink Gallery, Beijing

$80,000: Tim Eitel’s White Walls (2018) at Pace

$75,000–100,000: A painting by Mr. at Lehmann Maupin

$70,000 each: Watercolors by Sam Gilliam at David Kordansky

$60,000–65,000: Kim Yong-Ik’s Damaged Utopia #17-2 at Kukje Gallery

$50,000: Prabhavathi Meppayil’s painting thirty three eighteen (2018) at Pace

$40,000: John McAllister’s Alignments Astral Often (2017) from Wentrup Gallery

$35,000: Chloe Wise’s What to do with all this future? (2017) at Almine Rech

$35,000 each: Two 2018 works by Will Boone at David Kordansky

$30,000: A painting by Mihai Olos at Galeria Plan B

$22,000: Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s Bad (2018) at Almine Rech

SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION

Manish Nai’s Untitled (2017) at Kavi Gupta Gallery.

In excess of $1 million: Anish Kapoor’s steel sculptures, Mirror (Red to Purple) and Glisten (Oriental Blue to Purple to Laser Red) both 2017 at Lisson

$800,000: Fernando Botero’s Ballerina (2015) at Galerie Gmurzynska

$590,000: James Turrell’s glass and computerized LED sculpture Elliptical Glass: KEPLER 62f (2017) at Galería OMR

$575,000: A sculpture by Paul McCarthy at Hauser & Wirth

$550,000 each: Editions of Yoshitomo Nara’s instagram candy sculpture Your Puppy at Blum & Poe

$300,000: Approximate price of a work by Subodh Gupta by Hauser & Wirth

$250,000: Jeppe Hein’s sculpture One Two Three at König Galerie

$150,000: Isamu Noguchi’s Pylon (1959–81) at Pace Gallery

$150,000: Daniel Buren’s Prisms and Mirrors, high reliefs, situated works 2016/2017 for São Paulo (2017) at Galeria Nara Roesler

$150,000: Pablo Picasso’s small ceramic work, Tête de faune (1947) at Almine Rech

$150,000: Joel Shapiro’s Untitled (Blue) (2011) at Paul Kasmin Gallery

$140,000: Work by Arcangelo Sassolino at Pearl Lam Galleries

$123,000–160,000 each: Three works by Alberto Biasi at Tornabuoni Art Gallery

$98,000: A new sculpture by Alicja Kwade, Gravitas (Revolution), at König Galerie

$98,000: Song Dong’s Rectangular Window No. 5 from “Usefulness of Uselessness” at Pace

$95,000: Kathryn Andrews’s Triple Candy (2018) at David Kordansky

$75,000–95,000: Manish Nai’s sculpture of used clothes and wood at Kavi Gupta

$85,000: Evan Holloway’s Quiet Crowd (2017) at David Kordansky

$54,000: Betty Woodman’s Vase Upon Vase: Bella (2011–12) at David Kordansky

$50,000: Jeppe Hein’s THIS IS MAGIC at König Galerie

$50,000–75,000 each: Two sculptures by Do Ho Suh at Lehmann Maupin

$50,000: Calvin Marcus’s Green Calvin at David Kordansky

$45,000: Kaari Upson’s MMDP (nail biting) (2016) at Sprüth Magers

$44,000: Nevin Aladag’s ceramic and steel work, Jali Arrow at Wentrup

$40,000–90,000 each: Two works by Yoan Capote at Ben Brown Fine Arts

$40,000: Ricky Swallow’s Standing Sculpture (with rope) #6 at David Kordansky Gallery

$30,000: Erwin Wurm’s One Minute Sculpture (Organisation of Love), which demanded audience participation, sold via König Galerie, Lehmann Maupin, and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$12,400–50,000 each: Two works by Max Hooper Schneider at High Art, Paris

$7,000–10,000: Philipp Timischl’s “Fool me once, Fool me twice…” at Emanuel Layr Gallery

$5,000–50,000: Wu Chi-Tsung’s installation piece Wire V (2017) at Galerie du Monde

WORKS ON PAPER, PRINTS, AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Marc Chagall’s Le paysage d’hiver (1971). Courtesy of
Galleria d’Arte Maggiore.

In excess of $1.5 million: Marc Chagall’s Le Paysage d’Hiver (c. 1960–71) at Galleria d’Arte Maggiore

$750,000: Yoshitomo Nara’s In the White Room (2003) at Pace Gallery

$400,000: Barbara Kruger’s print on vinyl, Untitled (The latest version of the truth) (2018) at Sprüth Magers

$325,000: Yoshitomo Nara’s The Little Pilot at Blum & Poe

$95,000: Jonas Wood’s work Still Life with Kusaka, Takamori, and Frimkess at David Kordansky

$55,000: Vik Muniz’s Repro: Hermitage Museum (The Goldfish, after Matisse) (2016) at Galeria Nara Roesler

$50,000–80,000: Works on paper by Yoshitomo Nara at Blum & Poe

$50,000: Ink on paper works by artists Zheng Chongbin, Bingyi, and Yang Jiechang at Ink Studio Gallery

$40,000–45,000 each: Two photographs, Target and Last Sleepy Angel, by Marilyn Minter, both from 2017, at Lehmann Maupin

$31,000 each: Three photo-weaving works by Dinh Q. Lê at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery

$5,000–50,000 each: Two cyanotype collages by Wu Chi-Tsung at Galerie du Monde