Work by obscure US artist auctioned for nearly US$1 million in Hong Kong, its value driven up by his association with late painter Matthew Wong

A painting by a little-known American artist who once knew the late Canadian painter Matthew Wong has sold for HK$7.5 million (US$963,000) at auction in Hong Kong – a price more than 1,500 times the previous auction record of US$500 for a work by the artist, set in 2017.

The 2002 oil painting by 75-year-old Scott Kahn sold at a November 30 joint Phillips and Poly Auction evening sale, called Cadman Plaza, is a view from inside a high-rise building overlooking a section of Brooklyn in New York, with the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

At a sales preview a week before the auction, Phillips’ senior adviser Derek Collins, dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Hong Kong, said no work by Kahn had been sold in Asia before but the auction house anticipated strong interest because Wong, who grew up in Hong Kong, had cited Kahn as a friend and influence before his death in 2019 at the age of 35.

Veteran art adviser Josh Baer, publisher of an influential weekly art market newsletter, says he is not familiar with Kahn’s works and does not understand the sudden interest. He would generally advise his clients against buying into speculative trends because there is often all sorts of market manipulation going on, he adds.

Watching on from Art Basel Miami, Baer notes that demand in Asia seems to remain strong for figurative paintings by black artists: there were new auction records for Billie Zangewa and Godwin Champs Namuyimba in the Hong Kong sale. However, his impression is that Asian collectors are only buying works by artists of African descent for “money and speculation”.