HONG KONG.- Leading French auction house Artcurial completed its second sale in Hong Kong on 3 October, 2016, at Liangyi Museum, under the hammer of Isabelle Bresset. The auction has realised 2,5M€/ 21,9 M HKD, with 70 % of the lots sold, and 4 new world record at auction. The sale celebrates Artcurial’s long-time dedication to the auction of comics strips, and its ten year in the category of street art. It also saw keen interest from bidders around Asia, confirming Artcurial’s growing share in the market. 80% of the comics sold will stay in Asia.

The four new records are:

• Olivier Ledroit - The Marriage of Berath (Lot 1) - 275 000 HKD / 31 573 €

• Philippe Druillet - The Night (Lot 76) - 865 000 HKD / 99 311 €

• HERGE (Georges Rémi dit) - Fresco for the Cultural Center of Wallonie-Bruxelles, India ink and pencil on paper, 1979 (Lot 57) - 8,4M HKD / 967 279 € (World record for a post-war original work by Herge)

• Moebius - Arzach (Lot 73) - 1 345 000 HKD / 154 420 €

“For this second auction we chose to focus on Street art and Comics. A young crowd gathered in the room of Liang Yi Museum. The online bidders and the telephones were also very active.

The Comics did very well. The Ledroit chapter which was new to Hong Kong was 100% sold and the total amount was 50% above the low estimate. The result of the fresco by Herge confirmed the popularity of Tintin in China.

We are now at the early stage of the Street art market in HK and the results were very encouraging and gives us some insight on what we shall bring next time such.”