Editor’s Be aware: This story initially appeared in On Stability, the ARTnews publication concerning the artwork market and past. Join right here to obtain it each Wednesday.
Money flowed, however confidence trickled on Day 1 of Artwork Basel Hong Kong, the place a cross-section of the 240 galleries provided a spectrum of responses to at least one easy query: How are gross sales?
At Hauser & Wirth, Marc Payot, presiding over a packed sales space, described a “phenomenal” begin, citing attendance from critical collectors throughout Asia. By 5 p.m., a number of key works had offered. Louise Bourgeois’s 2002 sculpture Couple, a young late-career figurine, fetched $2.2 million, and her 2008 etching and blended media on paper piece, À Baudelaire (#1), went for $2.95 million. Prismatic Head (2021), a portray by George Rental, who not too long ago left the gallery, went for $2.3 million.
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In accordance to Payot, the sales space’s two priciest choices additionally moved: the 1956 Alexander Calder cell Horizontal and Pablo Picasso’s 1965 Chat et crabe sur la plage (Cat and Crab on the Seaside). The gallery didn’t state a value for both work. In the meantime, Lee Bul, the topic of a stellar survey at M+, has entered one other personal museum in Asia with Untitled (“Infinity” wall), which offered for $275,000.
“What now we have finished in a different way this yr is that this mixture of historic materials with up to date program, so a Calder paired with an Avery Singer; a Picasso with Roni Horn,” Payot mentioned. “We attempt to maintain as a lot obtainable as potential for the truthful.” He added, “We don’t carry this degree of fabric to every other Asian artwork truthful.”
David Zwirner reported promoting a 2006 portray by Liu Ye for $3.8 million and a 2002 portray by Marlene Dumas for $3.8 million. Different seven-figure gross sales included the 1964 Pablo Picasso oil portray Le peintre et son modèle for €3.5 million at Berlin’s Bastian gallery, works by Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun for $2.8 million and $1.3 million respectively at Waddington Custon, Alex Katz’s Flowers 1 (2011) for $1.3 million, and Tracey Emin’s Take me to Heaven (2024) for £1.2 million at White Dice.
Lehman Maupin reported promoting two early 2000s works by Lee Bul for $200,000–$300,000 every with an Asian museum, and a Kim Yun Shin sculpture round $100,000–$150,000 to a European collector. In a press release, cofounder David Maupin, mentioned “Hong Kong’s artwork market is clearly in a gentle part of restoration, with a renewed power felt throughout the truthful and town. As a gallery with sturdy roots in Asia, the area continues to play a vital function in our enterprise.”
Maybe no vendor appeared extra gratified than Marc Glimcher, CEO of Tempo Gallery. “Issues are higher in Hong Kong than they’ve been in a very long time,” Glimcher mentioned, noting that town’s power had been “downhill from Covid,” compounded by the “apparent political state of affairs.” With out naming costs, he talked about {that a} new portray by Anicka Yi, who not too long ago joined the gallery’s roster, had offered, and that the gallery’s sturdy exhibiting of Chinese language painters—together with Mao Yan, Wang Guangle, and Zhang Xiaogang—had proved widespread.
However the second belonged to Modigliani, the topic of a list raisonné from Institut Restellini, 30 years within the making and the main target of a 2027 exhibition collectively organized by Tempo and Restellini. Glimcher informed ARTnews he hoped the Restellini raisonné would lastly supplant the Ceroni-produced ebook, which he declined to deem a real catalogue raisonné. And if Modigliani followers aren’t but enthused, Tempo is bringing a bit from the Restellini catalog to each upcoming truthful, with potential consumers reportedly bidding from the equal of $13.3 million for the portrait on provide in Hong Kong—the priciest work on the truthful, we’d wager.
Amedeo Modigliani, Jeune femme brune, 1917–18.
Wealthy Gary
Extra highlights from that approximate price-range embrace—Tracey Emin’s huge acrylic portray Take me to Heaven (2024), at White Dice, for roughly $1.6 million; a 2006 portray by Liu Ye, at David Zwirner, for $3.8 million; and Martha Jungwirth’s Ohne Titel (2021), at Thaddaeus Ropac, for roughly $532,000. (The Liu portray offered, as did the Jungwirth, which went to a Chinese language establishment.)
Entry-level-priced works additionally bought their due: Busan’s Johyun Gallery reported 37 works offered, starting from $9,000 to $180,000, amongst them items by Park Website positioning-Bo, Kim Taek Sang, and Lee Bae.
Zero 10, the digital-focused sector making its Asia debut, proved a favourite with curators and collectors, and consumers usually engaged past standard portray and sculpture. Within the sector, Asprey Studio offered works by Qu Leilei ($45,000) and Tim Yip ($35,000). Lauren Tsai, whose Instagram following surpasses the gallery’s, marked her first collaboration with Perrotin by way of a sculptural and video set up: a puppet whose head went to mattress with out its physique, accompanied by a flickering tv. Your entire set up stays on maintain, with two items already offered. In the identical sales space, Steph Huang’s set up Grafting, which spills into the Encounters sector, had been earmarked by influential (however unnamed) establishments throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
In from San Francisco, Jessica Silverman positioned Atsushi Kaga’s Homage to Jakuchū – Panel 7 (2025) with a US establishment. The sales space additionally featured a collection of recent Judy Chicago works: pearlescent panels evocative of “hothouses”—à la Anaïs Nin—one in every of which pre-sold for $165,000.
Regardless of Chicago’s stature inside the US, she’s had little market publicity in Asia, Silverman mentioned. “Collectors haven’t had a chance to purchase her artwork,” she defined, noting that exterior this version of Artwork Basel, Chicago not often seems at Asian festivals. Gross sales sometimes happen by means of direct gallery or auction-house channels.
An set up view of Hauser & Wirth’s presentation at Artwork Basel Hong Kong 2026.
In contrast, virtually 4 hours into the preview, the higher ground remained comparatively sedate. Silverman attributed this to the truthful’s structure: with blue-chip galleries concentrated in Corridor 1, crowds naturally flocked there first.
Richard Nagy, whose eponymous gallery had but to make a sale by 7 p.m., credited his exhibiting to variations in style moderately than geography. “Nicely, this yr there are just about no galleries exhibiting pre‑struggle artwork aside from us,” he mentioned, having famous earlier Acquavella’s absence. “Final yr this part was all secondary market,” he added, gesturing towards a protracted row occupied by Asia Artwork Centre.
“I’d guess the steadiness between the price of Artwork Basel and the returns wasn’t adequate,” he mentioned. Explaining additional, he famous his gallery’s value factors—$200,000 to $4 million—had been increased than most, with the highest spot held by Paul Delvaux’s monumental Nudes with the Statue of Marcus Aurelius.
“Persons are not assured about how the pricing is set, so that they most likely come, ask, after which go away—logging onto Artnet as an alternative,” he concluded.
Elsewhere on the ground, Charmaine Chan, a director at Hong Kong’s Pearl Lam, struck a extra measured be aware. Whereas reporting a number of five-figure offers by 5 p.m., she noticed that the “decisive” shopping for typical of native collectors was noticeably absent.
“It’s apparent that gross sales are slower than regular,” she mentioned, talking as a veteran of the Artwork Basel Hong Kong department. “Often, Hong Kong consumers are fairly decisive. Three years in the past, we had Mr. Doodle within the sales space, and we offered out on the primary day.”
Her perspective contrasted with that of Tempo’s Marc Glimcher, who framed the absence of some large collectors as a extra relaxed dynamic. The gallery was in “no rush” to make a sale, he mentioned.
Chan, in flip, noticed the slower tempo as an indication of Hong Kong’s unpredictable gathering atmosphere. “And we don’t know the answer to that,” she mentioned. “Basically, our market continues to be a query mark.”
