HONG KONG.- Sotheby’s latest Hong Kong sales closed with a combined total of HK$955.98 million (US$124.28 million), the auction house’s highest total in the category in the city since fall 2023. Across four sales, 91% of lots found buyers, with the overall result coming in nearly 35% above the March 2026 total.
The Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction accounted for the largest share, bringing HK$671.33 million (US$87.27 million). The top lot was Yoshitomo Nara’s Present, which sold for HK$71.66 million (US$9.32 million), above its high estimate. Nara’s The Crated Room in Iceland/Drawing Room followed at HK$61.9 million, while Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (TWPOT) achieved HK$60.68 million.
The evening sale also produced several auction records. Hu Xiaoyuan’s Wood - Rift I sold for HK$1.664 million, while Li Hei Di’s The Heaviest of Burdens Crushes Us, We Sink Beneath It, It Pins Us to the Ground reached HK$3.328 million after 18 bids. Vu Cao Dam’s Conversation d’lgantes au jardin climbed to HK$28.96 million, which Sotheby’s said marked both an auction record for the artist and the highest price achieved at auction for any Vietnamese work.
European modern and Impressionist art also drew strong bidding. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Paysage avec figures sold for HK$52.14 million, setting what Sotheby’s described as a new Asian auction record for the artist. Zao Wou-Ki’s Bateaux sur fond bleu brought HK$52.75 million, Marc Chagall’s Les paysans realized HK$49.7 million, and Claude Monet’s Marine reached HK$24.08 million, twice its high estimate.
A separate highlight came with The Foujita Lexicon: Works from the Lewis Collection, Sotheby’s first dedicated single-artist auction in Asia. All 15 works sold, generating HK$67.22 million (US$8.74 million), with 80% of the lots surpassing their high estimates. The sale was led by Lonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s Le rve (Hommage La Fontaine), which drew 32 bids and sold for HK$26.52 million, more than four times its high estimate.
The Lewis Collection also carried institutional significance. Several works from the group are expected to appear in a Foujita exhibition at the Clark Art Institute in summer 2028, while two lots were acquired by Muse Ando Karuizawa in Japan, a museum devoted exclusively to Foujita’s work.
The day auctions added another HK$217.43 million (US$28.27 million), with more than 90% of lots sold. Renoir’s Jeune Fille au chapeau de paille led the Modern Day Auction at HK$45.43 million, while Kusama’s Pumpkin topped the Contemporary Day Auction at HK$12.8 million. The sessions also set auction records for Tran Luu Hau and Park Seo-Bo, while Vincent van Gogh’s Head of a Peasant Woman, Left Profile established a new Asian auction benchmark for a work on paper by the artist at HK$5.632 million.
Vietnamese artists were another strong area of the week, with works by Tran Luu Hau, Vu Cao Dam, Le Pho, Mai Trung Thu and Tran Binh Loc all selling. Sotheby’s said 100% of the Vietnamese works offered found buyers, with several selling for multiples of their estimates.
The auctions coincided with heavy public traffic at Sotheby’s Maison, where the exhibition PSYCHO: Identity Alienation Shadow Duality attracted nearly 85,000 visitors over 12 days. According to Sotheby’s, that figure was almost twice the attendance recorded during Art Basel in March, with queues at times wrapping around the building. The exhibition brought together private loans and works from the Modern & Contemporary auctions, including Nara’s Present and The Crated Room in Iceland/Drawing Room.
Evelyn Lin, Chairman of Modern & Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Asia, said the results reflected strong international participation and continued demand for Modern and Impressionist masters as well as Japanese artists, among both established and new collectors. en-sothebys-the-hong-kong-sales…
