Sold-out auctions suggest Hong Kong’s art market is back. But is it?

White gloves are traditionally given to an auctioneer if every single lot in a sale finds a buyer, a ceremonial touch that adds to the drama of these infrequent events. In March, during Hong Kong art week, the city saw two “white glove” auctions, which certainly raised hope that its multi-year auction market slump is finally over. The first of these milestone events occurred on March 27, when Christie’s 20th/21st Century Evening Sale was 100 per cent sold. The auction was led by Gerhard Richter’s HK$92.1 million (US$11.8 million) Abstraktes Bild and achieved a total of HK$655.8 million in sales. Two days later, on March 29, Sotheby’s followed with its own “white glove” evening auction. It brought in HK$548.4 million after Joan Mitchell’s La Grande Vallée VII fetched HK$137.3 million to become the most valuable work by a female artist sold at auction in Asia. Remarkably, the underbidder – the one who did not win the work but helped push up the final price – was a collector in their twenties. Meanwhile, Phillips’ evening sale, also on March 29, recorded a far-from-shabby 93 per cent sell-through rate. What those impressive figures mean about the Asian art market is inconclusive. As art adviser Josh Baer points out in his newsletter, the Richter and the Mitchell could well have been bought by collectors outside Asia. Non-Asian buyers and bidders represented nearly 70 per cent of the bids at Sotheby’s, the auction house says. But regardless of where the money came from, the sales brought positive energy to Hong Kong. Ian McGinlay, former auctioneer and founder of consultancy Iam-Art in Hong Kong, says that both Sotheby’s and Christie’s saw “full auction rooms, not seen for a while”. Any excitement about the increased spending at auctions during the week – Sotheby’s says that its total of HK$711.8 million was a 60 per cent leap from a comparable series of auctions in September 2025 – has to be put into perspective. Back in 2021, for example, Sotheby’s spring Modern & Contemporary art sales fetched a record HK$2.25 billion. This lag may have more to do with a shortage of great consignments than a lack of cash, says David Schrader of Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries, who is active in the high-end secondary art market. “Materials are still hard to get. Tremendous wealth has been created in the past three years, so people don’t need to sell.” Over at Art Basel Hong Kong, blue-chip galleries certainly managed to populate their sales reports with multimillion-US-dollar sales. David Zwirner sold a 2006 painting by Liu Ye for US$3.8 million, alongside a Marlene Dumas for US$3.5 million. Bastian placed a 1964 Pablo Picasso for around €3.5 million (US$4 million), while Hauser & Wirth sold works by Louise Bourgeois from US$2.2 million to US$2.95 million apiece. Yet, surging oil prices and geopolitical conflicts may well have made themselves felt as purchases took longer to complete. McGinlay says that the buoyancy evident at the auctions was not initially felt by the galleries at the fairs, but that by the end of the week, various key sales had been conducted or were in the process of being completed. Enrico Polato of Shanghai-based Capsule Gallery says that collectors seem to be taking a bit more time before making decisions. For the second year, he is holding a month-long pop-up beyond art week. “Rather than concentrating everything into the few days of the fair, keeping works in the city a bit longer allows conversations with collectors to develop more naturally,” he says. Other galleries with no permanent space in the city are also saying they will keep unsold works there longer, as the cost of shipping has surged. Still, most people agree that the market has turned the corner and that there are encouraging signs of tastes broadening. Sammi Liu of Tabula Rasa Gallery says that the gallery saw strong sales at Art Basel Hong Kong, with various works placed with both private collectors and institutions. She adds that there is a noticeable increase in interest in the region around Asian diaspora artists. For example, Musquiqui Chihying is currently included in a group exhibition at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun, and his work has recently been acquired by an institution in Asia. Meanwhile, Dan Zhu, who is based between Shenyang in China and The Hague in the Netherlands, is presenting her first institutional solo exhibition at Museum Kranenburgh in the Netherlands, Liu says. “We are currently in conversation with institutions in China about touring the exhibition.” Notable sales at Art Basel Hong Kong included P.P.O.W. Gallery placing the late Dinh Q. Le’s Damaged Gene with a Vietnam-based foundation for between US$150,000 and US$200,000. The disturbing installation with disfigured dolls was a result of the artist’s research into the long-term repercussions of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Lehmann Maupin sold more than 15 works, including two early-2000s pieces by Lee Bul on the first day of the fair, which art dealer David Maupin said was partly due to the excitement over the Korean artist’s retrospective now running at the M+ museum. Oliver Newton of 47 Canal says he has had his best Art Basel Hong Kong since 2023, selling multiple works by Trevor Shimizu, Nolan Simon and Cici Wu – including to a Korean collector who bought Shimizu’s Snow Dahlias Sunrise (1), and two collectors in Hong Kong who bought Simon’s Stepping Out and Wu’s Goddess Bari. All three collectors are new to the gallery, he adds. Schrader, who is based in New York, observes that Asian collectors have broader tastes than those in the United States and Europe and are less likely to be restricted by categories. For example, a Ming or Qing dynasty scholar’s rock – typically considered a Chinese antique – was sold during Sotheby’s 20th and 21st century art evening sale to a collector in their thirties. As “new ways of seeing art” appear in Hong Kong – as shown by the staggering number of events opening during art week this year – Schrader is confident that the city’s art market will continue its upward trend. “Hong Kong is maybe six to eight months behind the upward shift in New York and Europe,” he says. “But galleries and auction houses may well double down on Asia given ongoing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.”

Sold-out auctions suggest Hong Kong’s art market is back. But is it?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘White glove’ sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s March Hong Kong auctions are cause for optimism, but must be put into perspective

‘White glove’ sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s March Hong Kong auctions are cause for optimism, but must be put into perspective