NEW YORK, NY.- On December 2, Christie’s 20th Century: Hong Kong to New York auction opened Christie’s 20th Century Marquee Week in New York, and continued upon what has been a very successful Autumn Auction Series in Hong Kong. Connecting two great art world hubs, the innovative two-city sale achieved USD$119,273,225/ HKD$920,350,057/ £89,276,366 / €98,828,937, selling 90% by lot and 97% by value.

Alex Rotter, Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, Christie’s: “This week’s sale series in both Hong Kong and New York are a fitting coda to an innovative and re-imagined fall sale season for 20th and 21st Century Art, which started in New York in early October with a $387.2 million sale series, and continued in London and Paris with $141.3 million more. Today’s relay sale results show we read the market and its current appetites well, leveraging the strengths of both our Hong Kong and New York sales hubs by focusing on exciting contemporary material and rarities of Impressionist and Modern art. It was a formula well-suited to this December season, when the primary market focus traditionally shifts to this sector of the market. Given the tremendous depth of bidding and numerous auction records achieved, it was a sale strategy that proved ideal for this moment, and illustrates our commitment to innovation and experimentation in this continually-evolving market environment.”

Buyer Breakdown for the Sale: 30% Americas / 18% EMEA / 52% APAC




The sale, which was carefully designed to appeal to the market strengths in both cities, saw global participation for a wide range of artistic styles and movements. This was particularly true for fresh contemporary works, which saw global competition that drove four new world auction records within the first seven lots for works by Shara Hughes, Amoako Boafo, Joyce Pensato and Nicholas Party. A few lots later Dana Schutz’s monumental canvas, Elevator, incited an international bidding battle between Julia Hu in Hong Kong and Sara Friedlander, Max Carter and Alex Rotter in New York. The tour-de-force by Schutz ultimately sold to Hong Kong after 10 minutes of bidding for $6,486,255, nearly tripling the artist’s previous world auction record.

Similarly, in the New York leg of the sale, the auction’s top lot, Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec’s Pierreuse from the Estate of Mrs. Henry Ford II, sparked a fierce competition between bidders, which lasted 8 minutes before selling for $9,062,000, far surpassing the $3-5 million estimate.

The Hong Kong to New York sale marks the start of a three-day 20th Century Marquee Week in an extended, two-part Fall 20th Century Sale series for New York. The season commenced in October with a week that achieved $387,242,500. Today’s auction brings the running total for the auction series to $506,515,725.

Day Sales of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Impressionist and Modern Art and Design will continue in New York through Friday.

A detailed release summarizing 20th Century Week at Christie's New York will be distributed following the conclusion of the Day Sales. In the meantime, please find results for today’s sale attached.