Sotheby's Strikes Gold with Mandopop Star's Curated Sale
By Judy Chiu
Photo of the entrance to the auction preview at K11 Musea, Hong Kong, for the Jay Chou x Sotheby
On June 18, Jay Chou x Sotheby’s collaborative sale achieved a total of HKD 846 million (USD 109 million), with all of the lots finding buyers across Sotheby’s salerooms in Hong Kong, New York, and London, for a “white-glove” result, and surpassing its pre-sale estimate of HKD 617.9 million (USD 36.6 million). Selected by the Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and supported by the creative agency Enviseam and the K11 group, the sale featured nine works that achieved auction records, with more than 60 percent of the 46 lots fetching prices eclipsing their high estimates. The top lot, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1985), which was portrayed with the artist on the cover of The New York Times Magazine, hammered at HKD 290 million (USD 37.3 million), becoming the eighth most expensive Basquiat sold at auction to date.
