A fresh-to-auction Claude Monet “Water Lilies” painting will lead Christie’s first evening sale of 20th- and 21st-century at its new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong on September 26. Titled Nymphéas (1897–99), the work is estimated at HK$200 million to HK$280 million ($25 million to $35 million), making it one of the most valuable Western artworks ever offered at auction in Asia.

The piece depicts the water-lily pond at Monet’s home in Giverny, France—one of the first that the artist made of his iconic subject—and remained in his family for many years after his 1926 death, according to Christie’s. It has been consigned to the house by a private collection.

Nymphéas will join Zao Wou-ki’s abstract work 05.06.80–Triptyque (1980), which has an estimate of HK$78 million to HK$128 million ($10 million to $15 million), as a headliner of the sale at the auction house’s new home at the Henderson, a building designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

The Henderson, Hong Kong by Zaha Hadid Architects for Henderson Land. Rendering by Cosmoscube, courtesy of Christie’s.

Auction houses have been cultivating the market for blue-chip Western art in Asia for over a decade, starting with private sales and selling exhibitions. Western Impressionist and modern works have been offered in the region at live auctions with increasing frequency over the years, but lots with price tags in the tens of million of dollars remain rare.

The decision to offer the Monet can be read as a vote of confidence in the region by Christie’s, along with its plan to open its new headquarters.

Sotheby’s and Bonhams are also inaugurating new Asia flagships in Hong Kong this year. Phillips already expanded its footprint in the region last year with a new Asia headquarters in West Kowloon in Hong Kong.

The auction houses’ bets on Asia come amid a general art-market slowdown, and it remains to be seen whether they will pay off. Some sales of major Western artworks have fallen short in recent years. Last year, at Sotheby’s sale of the collection of the founders of Shanghai’s Long Museum, Amedeo Modigliani’s 1919 painting Paulette Jourdain had a (fees-free) presale estimate in the region of $45 million that made only $34.8 million, fees included. In 2022, Christie’s offered Monet’s painting Saule pleureur (1918–19) with a low estimate of HK$95 million ($12 million) at its Hong Kong sale, but it did not find a buyer.

The record for the most expensive Western artwork sold in Asia remains with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1982 painting Warrior. The work sold in 2021 for HK$323.6 million ($41.7 million), including fees, at a Christie’s Hong Kong sale, according to the Artnet Price Database.

The most expensive artwork sold at auction in Asia is a nearly 33-foot-long Zao Wou-ki triptych titled Juin-Octobre 1985, which sold for HK$510 million ($65.2 million) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2018.