Auction Report: Correction Point
By Alex Yiu
Phillips’s head of contemporary art, Isaure de Viel Castel, on the phone in front of YOSHITOMO NARA’s No Means No, 2006, at Phillips Hong Kong, October 6, 2023. Courtesy Phillips, Hong Kong.
For decades, Chinese art collectors have positioned Hong Kong as a major destination for secondary-market sales. But with China’s growth contracting in the year after its post-pandemic reopening, two major auction series at Sotheby’s and Phillips in Hong Kong in early October produced disappointing results for many bluechip modern and contemporary artworks. Is this a turning point in the market?
