HONG KONG, Oct. 4, 2018
/PRNewswire/ --Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) Autumn 2018 Hong Kong auction
series concluded this week with a grand total of $466.1 million, against a pre-sale low estimate
of $401 million, a
15% increase compared to the same sales in October
2017. The series of 20 auctions was led by a monumental
modern masterpiece by Zao Wou-Ki,
which sold for a record $65 million
while other highlights included selling exhibitions of Western Art
and the Important Watches auction which nearly doubled the
equivalent sale last year.
"Our recent Hong Kong sales
rose 15% on exceptional results for Modern and Contemporary Art,
including a very rare 100% sold Contemporary Art Day sale," said
Tad Smith, Sotheby's CEO, adding,
"Both the number of buyers and aggregate spending, including from
Mainland China, were up sharply in that category with particular
strength from Taiwan and
Hong Kong that could bode well for
the upcoming major art sales in the West."
"At the same time, the overall number of buyers and aggregate
spending by Asians was down from the year earlier period due to
macroeconomic uncertainties, with Mainland Chinese buyers in
particular citing slowing economic growth, weak Asian equity
markets, and trade friction as factors on their minds. The result
was weakness in a few traditional categories including Chinese
works of art and jewelry made of jade."
In addition, the week featured two selling exhibitions of
Western Art. A Brush with Nature was the most extensive selling
exhibition ever staged in Asia
dedicated entirely to European Old Master paintings and drawings
and resulted in sales to Asian collectors entirely new to the
field. Panorama: A New Perspective presented works by the likes of
Andy Warhol, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir,
resulting in over 20 sales to Asian collectors.
Mike Goss, Sotheby's CFO added:
"When considering third quarter earnings, we would like to remind
investors that we reported a one-time $.14 per-share benefit in last year's third
quarter which should be taken into account when making year-on-year
comparisons."
About Sotheby's
Sotheby's has been uniting collectors
with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the
first international auction house when it expanded from
London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in
Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international
fine art auction house in China
(2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 11 different
salesrooms, including New York,
London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows
visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from
anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of
Sotheby's Financial Services, the world's only full-service
art financing company, as well as the collection, artist, estate
& foundation advisory services of its subsidiary, Art
Agency, Partners. Sotheby's presents private sale opportunities
in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of
Sotheby's Global Fine Art Division, and three retail businesses:
Sotheby's Wine, Sotheby's Diamonds, and Viyet, the online
marketplace for interior design. Sotheby's has a global network of
80 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the
New York Stock Exchange (BID).
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Hong Kong
| Winnie Tang | +852 2822 8146 |
winnie.tang@sothebys.com
New York | Dan Abernethy | dan.abernethy@sothebys.com
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SOURCE Sotheby's