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As the action-packed Seoul Art Week wrapped, the art world’s attention turned to Hong Kong, where big-ticket auctions will soon occur. All the major international auction houses have new Asia headquarters in the city, and anticipation is running high. Since each house now has a dedicated home, they will no longer be confined to a restrictive schedule because of a lack of venues. We should expect greater diversity and flexibility in the sales calendar.

On Friday, Christie’s welcomed hundreds of guests and members of the press for the first time to its new headquarters at the Henderson in the Central district. Occupying 50,000 square feet over four floors of the futuristic office tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, it is four times the size of the house’s previous space in Hong Kong. The house’s new space is designed by Hong Kong headquartered architecture practice Collective, and will hold its first sales on September 26 and 27.

A gallery space at the new Christie’s Asia headquarters at the Henderson in Hong Kong. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd 2024.

The house has been feeding the press highlights of those inaugural sales. The action will kick off on September 26 with the blockbuster Au Bak Ling collection of Chinese ceramics, featuring 19 lots with presale estimates of HK$43.6 million to HK$64.6 million ($5.58 million to $8.3 million; presale estimates do not include fees, sale prices do).

It will be followed by the 20th/21st Century Evening Art Sale, featuring 46 lots with total presale expectations of HK$884.4 million to HK$1.35 billion ($114.3 million to $175.5 million). As Artnet News recently reported, the sales will be led by an array of blockbuster works, including a 1887 Van Gogh with royal ties that is expected to fetch $30 million–$50 million, a Monet “Water Lilies” (1897–99) with a price tag of $25 million–$35 million, and Zao Wou-ki’s abstract 05.06.80–Triptyque (1980), which has a $10 million–$15 million estimate.

“With one integrated hub at the Henderson, we have the long-needed flexibility to hold sales and activities in-house throughout the year,” Francis Belin, president of Christie’s Asia Pacific, said in a statement. “This is a landmark new chapter for Christie’s in Asia and a major step to support our growth across the region in both art and luxury.”

Meanwhile, Phillips has been making the most of its Hong Kong home, which opened last year in the West Kowloon Cultural District. It has a new cafe and exhibition spaces that are large enough to accommodate an art fair (where Art021 recently debuted in Hong Kong). Its private sales arm, Phillips X, just opened a new exhibition, “A Tribute to Tradition: Another Clue About Huang Yuxing,” featuring the Chinese art market star’s paintings, as well as works that nod to Chinese traditions, such as a purple clay teapot sculpture, lacquerware, and ceramics.

Collector Eric Edwards with the Sanyu painting. Courtesy of Phillips.

Phillips offered a sneak peak of its upcoming Hong Kong sales during Seoul Art Week via an exhibition at the Songwon Art Center. Sanyu’s Reclining Nude, with Raised Knee II (1950s/’60s), which was featured, is the star lot of the house’s modern and contemporary art evening sale on November 25. The painting comes from collector Eric Edwards, who sold a number of the artist’s paintings at a Christie’s Hong Kong sale in 2019, including the record-breaking Five Nudes (1950s), which made HK$304 million ($38.72 million). The upcoming lot has an estimate in the region of HK$70 million ($8.9 million). But prior to that, Phillips will host a New Now auction of international contemporary art on October 4.

The smaller Bonhams firm, which focuses on the middle market, is also moving to a new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong in mid-October. Its new home will take up three floors spanning 19,000 square feet of the brand new Six Pacific Place, just one underground stop away from Central. Its inaugural sales have not yet been announced.

Sotheby’s, for its part, opened a retail and exhibition space, Sotheby’s Maison, in Hong Kong this summer. Market watchers had been looking forward to a showdown between Christie’s and Sotheby’s, with their inaugural sales set for the same week in late September, but Sotheby’s changed its plans, and it pushed its sales to November.

Leading Sotheby’s sales is Mark Rothko’s 1954 painting Untitled (Yellow and Blue), Artnet reported on Friday. The work, which has a presale estimate in the region of $30 million to $45 million, will appear in a Modern and contemporary art auction on November 8 at Sotheby’s Maison. It will be the first time a Rothko oil painting has been offered at auction in Asia.

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Yellow and Blue), on view at Sotheby’s Maison in Hong Kong. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Multiple sources familiar with Sotheby’s operation told us that securing consignments has been difficult for the house, and the Rothko consignment was confirmed very recently. However, a spokesperson said in an email that the shift in dates was “to capitalize on the significant number of visitors we have seen coming through the doors of Sotheby’s Maison since its opening. The response has far exceeded our expectations.”

But while the elegantly designed Maison has attracted a great deal of traffic, sources said, it is not clear if walk-in customers are actually buying the material on offer, which includes a dinosaur fossil priced at $470,000.

Sotheby’s decision to change its fee structure, rather than the broader economic outlook, may be causing potential consignors to hesitate, industry insiders said. The new structure favors buyers, who pay less, but it’s less attractive to sellers. In the past, sellers had some room to negotiate, insiders said, but no longer. Sellers are required to pay a standard 10 percent of the first $500,000 hammer price of each lot (up to a maximum of $50,000). The new setup may not necessarily mean that sellers will pay more than in the past, but it is less appealing when they have other options.

While Sotheby’s has postponed its auctions, art lovers can still experience exquisite works there. The Maison is currently showing Zhang Daqian’s monumental splash-ink The Giant Lotuses (1960), a set of six hanging scrolls measuring nearly 12 feet tall and 26 feet long. It is on view through September 25.

An earlier version of this piece was published in The Asia Pivot on September 18.