The consolidated results are in for the past week of sales at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. The sales appear to have been very successful, totaling nearly $450 million (including buyers premiums) and selling close to 3,400 lots (that is an average of about $132,000 per lot). The pre sales estimate for the week was about $335 million. Over 3,600 lots were offered during the week of sales, for a sell through rate of approximately 94%. The autumn 2010 Hong Kong sales at Sotheby's brought $390 million, and was the previous auction house record for the Hong Kong location . Additionally there was some post sale activity, totaling over $35 million.
Although the Asian market appears to be strong, there are some concerns with the reported lack of timely payments of purchases which may impact the strong trends. I posted about this issue the other day on the AW Blog with an article from the Financial Times (click HERE to read), and it has been repeated in some other publications, such as Bloomberg as well. It is something to keep in mind as we observe the market trends.
Sotheby's appeared to be pleased with the results of the sales. Stating
Patti Wong, Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “The Hong Kong sale series just concluded has demonstrated as never before the success of Sotheby’s truly international network, both in the sourcing of property and in access to bidders and buyers both within and outside the region. Not only were four major single owner collections consigned from Europe and the United States, but fresh property across a range of categories, including Chinese Works of Art, Contemporary Asian Art, 20th Century Chinese Art, Watches, Wine and Jewellery, came to sale due to the desire of owners outside of Asia, and especially those from Europe, to take advantage of the ever-vibrant art market that exists in Hong Kong today."
Kevin Ching, CEO of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “Today, the company completes the most successful Hong Kong Sale Series in its history. Over the past eight days we offered more than 3,600 lots across eight collecting categories, million estimated in excess of HK$2.7 billion / US$340 million*.
Remarkably, virtually every day saw records broken, including a record for single a single owner sale of Contemporary Chinese Art at auction (The Ullens Collection), a r record Art ecord for any work of Contemporary Chinese Art, as well as the highest totals at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for the sale categories of 20 Fine Chinese Paintings, 20th Century Chinese Art, Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings, Important Watches and Wine Wine, and the second highest total for a Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Sale. While we saw guarded bidding during last evening’s auction of The Meiyintang Collection, the two top lots were sold immediately after the auction, bringing us very close to our pre-sale low estimate. Altogether, our sales in the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art category also represent the hi second highest ghest total in the category for Sotheby’s in Hong Kong. Most importantly, our sale total for the entire week of HK$3,487,593,000 / US$447,127,000 is significantly up from last October’s record high.”
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