HONG KONG, April 16 — For several years now, the art world has been on something of a mission to seduce collectors in Asia.
Auction houses no longer hesitate to offer exceptional lots during their sales in the region.
The latest in line are Spider IV by Louise Bourgeois and Dora Maar by Picasso, soon to be auctioned in Hong Kong.
A monumental bronze spider, perched on legs over two meters high, is the star lot of the forthcoming evening sale dedicated to contemporary art that Sotheby’s is holding April 27 in Hong Kong.
This sculpture was created in 1996 by Louise Bourgeois. It is part of a series of six other specimens through which the French artist, who died in 2010, plays with the symbolism of the spider.
While this arachnid may appear threatening to some, it was always a positive figure in the sculptor’s work.
She described it as an ode to her mother, who was in charge of a tapestry restoration workshop, and who the artist once described as being “deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat, and as useful as a spider.”
Spider IV is estimated to fetch HK$120 to US$150 million (RM64.8 million to RM80.9 million), or around US$15 to US$20 million. It could thus become the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction in Asia.
However, it is unlikely to match the feat of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong. Last year, this semi-autobiographical painting by the New York painter sold for HK$323.6 million (US$41.8 million), setting a new record for a Western artist in the Asian market.
Still, bids could rise in light of collector interest in Louise Bourgeois’s creations.
One of them, entitled Spider, sold for US$28 million at Christie’s New York in 2015 — an amount that set a new sales record for the French artist.
Asian buyers are not immune to “Louise Bourgeois mania” either.
Her sculpture Quarantina sold for HK$67 million (US$8.6 million) in 2018, at an auction held in Seoul.
All eyes on Asia
According to Alex Branczik, head of modern and contemporary art at Sotheby’s Asia, the fact that Spider IV is going under the hammer in Hong Kong confirms Asian buyers’ growing interest in Western art. “The decision to offer this sculpture in Hong Kong was very deliberate,” he told Artnet News.
“As a selling centre, Hong Kong has become a critical region to our business. Since we first started offering Western art in the region in 2017, we’ve been seeing an ever-increasing appetite for the category across the continent — not only for works by the most celebrated Western artists through history but, in particular, for their very best works.”
To satisfy the appetite of Asian collectors for Western art, Sotheby’s will also offer Picasso’s Dora Maar for auction during its modern art evening sale, April 27.
This is the first time that a portrait of the Spanish painter’s muse has been put up for sale in Hong Kong.
A calculated choice on the part of the auction house. It previously put three works by Picasso — Buste de matador, Buste d’homme and Femme accroupie — up for auction in the Asian city last year. Each fetched more than HK$100 million (about US$12.8 million).
All of which indicates strong demand for Picasso’s top works among Asian collectors, according to Sotheby’s.
From Louise Bourgeois to Picasso, Asian art buyers are often ready to splash the cash at auction.
They bid or bought 46 per cent of the lots sold for more than US$5 million at Sotheby’s in 2021.
And the Patrick Drahi-owned auction house is not the only one to have noticed this phenomenon.
Collectors from Asia also accounted for 31 per cent of Christie’s sales last year.
As a result, Christie’s has announced plans to move into a new four-story headquarters in Hong Kong in 2024.
Its rival, Phillips, will leave the Marriott Hotel in the fall for the WKCDA Tower and its 4,400 square meters of exhibition space and sales rooms spread over six levels. The ideal location to continue expanding into the Asian market. — ETX Studio
