Christie’s Hong Kong inaugural sale on 26 September, which will launch its new Asia-Pacific headquarters in The Henderson building, will be headlined by one of Claude Monet’s Nymphéas paintings. It will mark the first appearance at auction for the water lily painting, which was created 125 years ago and was one of the artist’s earliest depictions of the subject, which would become his muse.
This work remained in the Monet family's possession for years before moving to a private collection. Four other paintings in the eight-work Nymphéas series are owned respectively by the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Kagoshima City Museum of Art, and the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome. The work on sale in Hong Kong is estimated to fetch between HK$200m and HK$280m ($25m-$35m).
"As one of the few remaining rare works from Monet’s pioneering first Water Lilies series that is still in a private collection, with the rest residing in museums across the world, this painting is a true singular treasure," said Cristian Albu, the deputy chairman and head of 20th/21st century art, Christie’s Asia Pacific in a statement. "We are privileged to present this seminal painting to our discerning collectors in Asia, catering to the surging demands for iconic Western artworks of the highest calibre.”
Christie’s will open its 50,000 sq ft new regional headquarters to the public on 20 September, ahead of the sales on the 26 and 27 of that month. The new sale room, offices, galleries and client hub will occupy the 6th to 9th floor of The Henderson, a new office tower in Central Hong Kong designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. With high ceilings and a pillar-free floor plan, the new galleries are designed to be easily transformable for events ranging from exhibitions to private sales to educational programmes.