According to a report by Bloomberg, a succession of art auctions held in Hong Kong by Christie's International Plc raised managed to surpass expected sales by almost double the estimate. Christie's Hong Kong auctions managed to raise HKD3.82 billion or USD493 million. The sale, which ran for six days until last night, included an auction of a case of Romanee-Conti 1978 for HKD3.675 million, Qing dynasty porcelain jar for HKD64.52 million and a Patek Philippe wristwatch that fetched Christie's HKD4.24 million. Pre-sale estimate excluding fees was HKD2 billion.
Bloomberg said in its report that buyers coming from mainland China were seen as dominant players in Hong Kong auctions, according to auction houses and dealers. Chinese buyers are bidding up prices of a variety of items aside from contemporary, modern and classical Chinese art, that also include watches, wine, porcelain, jadeite and jewelry. One highlight in the 6-day sale was the record auction of untitled abstract diptych of Chinese-French artist Zhu Dequn, which fetched HKD70.7 million from a Chinese buyer.
Despite the sale frenzy in Hong Kong, the auction fever did not catch on in London, wherein auction in Croydon failed to sell seven of its 24 lots. London-based dealer Daniel Eskenazi said the poor performance of auctions in the UK was attributed to the high estimates set on auctions.
"If you put estimates close to the real value it's less tempting to buyers. Croydon will maybe get a sports center out of it," Eskenazi said.
A report on The Art Newspaper said Christie's, along with major auction houses are pulling all the stops to ensure that potential bidders will be spending more money in their auctions. London's auctions recorded modest sales in October, the paper said. Guarantees on items for auction, which were considered controversial as they skewed the auction market by preordaining certain items to be sold at an agreed price, had reduced the auction houses' profit margin. Christie's and Sotheby's, its rival auction house, shelled out at least USD200 million that did not sell , according to news magazine the Economist.
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