The Collector | Hong Kong’s autumn art auctions boosted by diversity of lots

With the economy and financial markets booming, recent Hong Kong auctions witnessed roaring trade. At the city’s three biggest auction houses’ autumn sales, cash-rich collectors shelled out HK$2 billion more than last year.

China Guardian Hong Kong, celebrating its fifth anniversary by selling that Lalique-crystal-covered piano, held its sales in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre for the first time, giving the auction house four times more space than at its former sale location, in the JW Marriott Hotel. Traditionally strong in Chinese paintings, China Guardian was able to beef up its offering, with 1,700 lots compared with about 1,100 last year.

In the modern and contemporary art category, China Guardian sold Zhang Daqian’s scroll Vajrasattva (1950) for HK$34.9 million, four times more than the highest pre-sale estimate of HK$8 million. It also sold the Schoeni Family Collection of contemporary Chinese art for more than HK$13 million, with a sell-through rate of 93 per cent. In total, the house raked in HK$652 million in just two days, nearly double the figure achieved last year.