In the spring auctions held at Sotheby’s Hong Kong (2-6 April), 2,637 lots sold for a total of HK$3.1bn ($405m). Kevin Ching, the chief executive of Sotheby’s Asia, said: “If this is what a correction feels like, then I sure hope we have one in the autumn too, because our sales are up 17% over last spring.” Twenty-one works by the Chinese ink master Zhang Daqian were on offer, including his 1982 piece Peach Blossom Spring, estimated at HK$65m ($8.3m), which received more than a hundred bids and ultimately sold to the Long Museum Shanghai for HK$271m ($34.7m), breaking Zhang’s previous record of $24.5m.
Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei, the owners of the Long Museum, also bought Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita’s oil on canvas Nu au chat (1930) for HK$39.4m ($5.1m). A spokeswoman says that the new acquisitions will probably be unveiled at the museum’s five-year anniversary show next year. Other Zhang works that sold this season included Leisure Stroll through Mountains (1946), for HK$17.5m ($2.2m), and Alishan in Oblique Sunrise (1980), for HK$44.4m ($5.7m).