In a result that’s seen an encouraging sign of continuing demand in Asian markets, Sotheby’s closed out its six day Asian sales series in Hong Kong with a final tally of $385m. That amount was considerably higher than the auction house’s $300m pre-sales estimate for the 3,600 lots offered, and the second highest total Sotheby’s has achieved in a Hong Kong series.
The sequence included sales of art, wine, watches, and jewelry. Perhaps the week’s biggest surprise was the dip in Chinese and Asian contemporary art, which recorded unsold rates of over 20 percent. All the same, the week’s total—despite the financial market’s wide swings and heightened uncertainties– raised Sotheby’s annual Hong Kong sales to over $1 billion for the first time, highlighting the central importance of Hong Kong as a global marketplace. Top seller during the series was a Ming cobalt blue “meiping” vase with fruit and floral motifs. Estimated to be at least 500 years old, it fetched $21.6 million, a world auction record for any piece of Ming porcelain.
Read more at Reuters.
