What Sold at Art Basel in Hong Kong 2023

Top-tier global galleries were eager to note how promising sales were going on the first day of Art Basel in Hong Kong 2023, the first full-scale in-person edition of the fair to take place since 2019.

“Two gallery owners were saying that they had sold out their entire booths in the first day, and were complaining that they didn’t know what to show to a group of collectors being sent to them by a museum the next day,” said dealer-auctioneer Simon de Pury during the early hours before the fair had opened to the public.

From the perspective of an international visitor, de Pury noted that “the energy level seems to be even above the last pre-COVID edition.

“There is a feeling of euphoria over this edition,” he said. “International visitors are elated, locals are equally excited with the mask obligation having been dropped. Hong Kong is clearly back!”

“Energy” became something of a recurring theme across the course of the fair, with nearly every gallerist, artist, and collector that Artsy spoke to noting how vibrant the week felt. Collector Alan Lo, whose restaurant Duddell’s was showcasing emerging art on loan from five local private collections, enthused: “It’s been amazing energy—I’m kind of touched to see everyone coming back.”

White Cube’s general manager Wendy Xu echoed Lo’s sentiment: “There was a great energy. Sales were incredibly strong for us, totaling over £4 million—mostly to collectors and institutions from Hong Kong and mainland China, who were back in force.”

Along with collectors from mainland China, there was also a notably strong contingent from South Korea: “Works by Lorna Simpson and Pipilotti Rist have been acquired by a private museum in Korea,” shared Hauser & Wirth’s Elaine Kwok. “Since the fair opened we’ve placed $15 million of art in respected collections in the region—the sales speak for themselves, but we had high expectations which I’m delighted to say have been exceeded.”

For Javier Peres, founder of Peres Projects, which will expand its footprint from Berlin and Milan into Seoul next month, first-day results also exceeded expectations: “We saw a lot of people from Korea that we know very well; a lot of people from Japan were here as well. The presence of Asian collectors was very strong.”

There were, however, murmurs after the first rush of sales that a slower, more considered approach to buying was in play. While inquiries were flowing, conversations were taking place, and secondary market sales were solid, there was a sense that many private collectors were choosing to take in the fair before parting with their cash. This recalled pandemic and post-pandemic buyer behavior in other luxury sectors, where bankable investment purchases remained steady, but a dip in revenues was observed elsewhere.

Here, we share a rundown of some of the top sales at Art Basel in Hong Kong 2023.

Key seven-figure sales

Blue-chip European and American galleries—and predominantly European or American artists—whose works commanded seven-figure pricing included the following:

• Hauser & Wirth—which also announced that it will be moving to a new Hong Kong space at 8 Queen’s Road Central—sold Mark Bradford’s A Straight Line (2023) for $3.5 million to a collection in Asia on the first day. Two more seven-figure sales on the second day followed: George Condo’s Purple Compression (2011) to a Hong Kong/L.A. private collection for $4.75 million; and a glass sculpture by Roni Horn, which went to a private museum in Asia for $1.75 million.
• Thaddaeus Ropac sold Georg Baselitz’s Für links, Richtung Westen (2021) for €1.4 million ($1.53 million).Cardi Gallery sold Giorgio de Chirico’s oil on canvas Il dialogo misterioso (Archeologi) (1970) for $1.5 million.
• David Zwirner sold Elizabeth Peyton’s Truffaut (2005) for $2.2 million to an Asian museum.

• Paris gallery Mennour sold Lee Ufan’s Dialogue (2014) for €1 million ($1.09 million) to a private collection.
• Gladstone Gallery sold two Alex Katz paintings for $1.2 million and $1.3 million each.
• Ota Fine Arts sold one of Yayoi Kusama’s “Pumpkin” sculptures (2022) for $3.5 million.
• Xavier Hufkens sold an Alice Neel painting for a price in the range of $1 million–$1.2 million.
• White Cube sold Anselm Kiefer’s Rapunzel (2017) for €1 million ($1.09 million).
• Fergus McCaffrey sold Kazuo Shiraga’s Kisan (1991) for $5 million.
• LGDR sold a new Beeple kinetic video sculpture, S.2122, that had an asking price of $9 million (inclusive of an NFT); Pablo Picasso’s Fillette au Béret (1964) with a $5.5 million asking price; and Nicolas Party’s Birds Fighting for Worms (2017) with an asking of $2.8 million.

Key institutional sales

Among the institutions reporting acquisitions, Shanghai’s Long Museum purchased an Angel Otero work, On Being Blue (2023), for $225,000 from Hauser & Wirth, as well as Jordan Wolfson’s Red Sculpture (2016–22) for $900,000 from David Zwirner. In the Encounters section of the fair dedicated to large-scale installation, a museum in Asia bought Stanislava Pinchuk’s The Wine Dark Sea (2022–23) a work consisting of several text-inscribed marble plinths, for $240,000 from Yavuz Gallery.

An additional Encounters work, David Altmejd’s The Vector (2022), was placed at a Chinese institution for $135,000. K11 Art Collection acquired The Gape by Tammy Nguyen—touted as a highlight by Lehmann Maupin in its booth—for $90,000.

Other works placed in unnamed institutions included: Jeffrey Gibson’s PPPPP OOOOO WWWWW EEEEE RRRRR (2022) for $250,000; Sarah Ball’s Jerome (2022) from London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery for £75,000 ($92,337); and Kylie Manning’s What stays with us, and what falls behind (2022), which went for $100,000 from Pace Gallery to a private museum.

More significant sales

Other sales in the top tier of the market included the following:

• White Cube sold two Antony Gormley iron sculptures for £720,000 ($882,554) and £500,000 ($612,885), respectively. Damien Hirst’s Deep Leaf sold for $525,000.
• Lehmann Maupin sold Nari Ward’s Peace Walk, SESSION (2022) for $425,000; a 2022 Liu Wei painting for $325,000; and Lee Bul’s Perdu CXLVIII (2022) for $190,000. “We predominantly sold to collectors in Hong Kong, mainland China, and Singapore, with additional placements in Australia, the United Kingdom, and with a few U.S. museum trustees,” shared co-founder David Maupin. “We’ve exceeded our expectations—with the placement of marquee works by Gilbert and George, Liu Wei, Lee Bul, Mandy El-Sayegh, and Chantal Joffe; as well as the terrific placement of Tammy Nguyen’s work with the K11 Art Collection.”
• New York’s Luhring Augustine sold two Salman Toor artworks, including Well Dressed Friends (2017) for $475,000, and an untitled 2017 Christopher Wool artwork for $300,000.

• Pace Gallery sold Lee Ufan’s Dialogue (2014) for $975,000; Alex Katz’s Blue Flag 3 (1966) for $820,000; and an untitled Joel Shapiro sculpture for $750,000. Loie Hollowell’s Split Belly (2023) sold for $275,000.
• Almine Rech sold a Javier Calleja acrylic on canvas, One More Step (2023), for $340,000–$380,000. A painting from Ha Chong-Hyun’s “Conjunction” series (2022) sold for $220,000–$250,000, and Tomokazu Matsuyama’s Snowplow Howling (2023) sold for $150,000–$180,000.
• Thaddaeus Ropac sold another Elizabeth Peyton work, Elizabeth II (1995) for $850,000, and Daniel Richter’s OOA2 (2011) for $800,000. After announcing the representation of rising star Zadie Xa, the gallery sold two of the Korean Canadian artist’s works for £22,000.Antwerp’s Zeno X Gallery sold Luc Tuymans’s Dolls II (2022) for $750,000 and Michaël Borremans’s The Promise IV (2016) for €675,000 ($726,800).

• Antwerp’s Zeno X Gallery sold Luc Tuymans’s Dolls II (2022) for $750,000 and Michaël Borremans’s The Promise IV (2016) for €675,000 ($726,800).
• Massimodecarlo sold several Yan Pei-Ming artworks, including Wild Game: The Way of the Lion (2022) for €360,000 ($387,626), along with works by Elmgreen & Dragset, Yan Ping, and Josh Smith.
• While Gagosian did not share specific sales results, senior director for Hong Kong and Asia, Nick Simunovic, said that notable sales included works by Dan Colen, Allana Clarke, Edmund De Waal, Jadé Fadojutimi, Zeng Fanzhi, Cy Gavin, Mark Grotjahn, Thomas Houseago, Alex Israel, Jamian Juliano-Vallani, Takashi Murakami, Ed Ruscha, Alexandria Smith, Spencer Sweeney, Tatiana Trouvé, Anna Weyant, Stanley Whitney, and Jonas Wood. “Katharina Grosse’s new paintings sold well both on the booth as well as in her solo exhibition that we opened in our gallery on Monday,” he said. “And at the fair we also placed a painting from 1999 by the late Japanese painter Tetsuya Ishida.”
• David Kordansky Gallery sold its entire lot of new Adam Pendleton canvases from its upstairs booth before the sun had set on the first day, with the 10 works going for $95,000–$135,000 apiece to a number of “prominent collectors in Asia.”

Notable sales from regional and local galleries

While blue-chip and top-tier galleries such as South Korea’s Kukje Gallery reported better-than-expected sales, others were less enthused. Towards the closing day, one or two local outfits who have been regulars of the fair for years expressed off the record that things could have gone better, particularly when it came to higher-ticket works.

As of Saturday morning, local collector and deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Evan Chow, was still deciding what he might purchase from the fair, and noted the growing sophistication of both buyers and sellers: “The collectors ambling around Art Basel are getting younger and younger these days,” he told Artsy. “Collectors from either mainland [China] or Hong Kong are more accepting to new mediums, and [are] abreast of the latest trends in contemporary art. [We are seeing] the advent of a more diversified art scene. In lieu of masterpieces, there is a stronger presence of Southeast Asian art in Art Basel this year, and for the very first time two galleries from Africa joined the line-up.”

Alan Lo also noted, “I think many dealers are just happy and excited to be back! Galleries did good sales, I’m told. Our foundation acquired a sculptural work by New York–based artist Jes Fan, who showed at the Venice Biennale last year, from Empty Gallery for $85,000.”

Other notable sales from regional and local galleries included the following:

• Hong Kong gallery Kwai Fung Hin sold Li Huayi’s ink on Japanese gilded screen, Melody of Ink under Gold Shine II (2022), and Lalan’s Rouge, la Révolution (1989), each for an amount between HK$5 million–HK$6 million (approximately US$637,000–US$764,000).
• Kukje Gallery sold two of Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction paintings, including one for a price in the range of $515,000–$600,000. Anish Kapoor’s Lime to Teal (2022) mirror sculpture sold in the price range of £500,000–£600,000 ($611,000–$734,000), while Lee Seung Jio’s Nucleus (1987) sold in the range of $300,000–$350,000. The gallery also sold works by Jenny Holzer, Park Seo-Bo, Ugo Rondinone, and Haegue Yang, alongside those by Sungsic Moon and Daniel Boyd.
• Hong Kong’s Galerie du Monde sold an LED work by Kongkee for $82,500; a Tang Kwong San artwork for HK$265,000 (US$33,800); and several Wesley Tongson paper works for $20,000–$30,000 apiece. The gallery also sold a number of Michael Muller works for €22,000–€60,000 ($24,000–$65,000), and two new Adia Millett pieces for $20,000 and $60,000, respectively. “We’re thrilled to be featuring five Hong Kong artists this year, and it’s great to see interest in them from international collectors—particularly for homegrown talents such as Kongkee, Tang Kwong San, and Wesley Tongson,” noted its managing director Kelvin Yang.

• 10 Chancery Lane Gallery sold a photoweaving work by Dinh Q. Lê in the range of $80,000–$100,000 and seven of Laurent “Lo” Martin’s bamboo sculptures, including one for $20,000 to a Chinese museum. It also sold four Wang Keping sculptures, and its entire lot of Liang Hao paintings.
• Vadehra Art Gallery from New Delhi sold Atul Dodiya’s Sucking on a Mango (2011) and Balkrishna Doshi’s sculpture Overlay of Dreams VII (2022) in the range of $40,000–$60,000 each.
• Shanghai- and Seoul-based Vanguard Gallery sold all editions of Liao Fei’s “Chiral Extent 17” series (2022) for ¥30,000 ($4,358) each.
• Hong Kong’s de Sarthe Gallery sold a number of triptychs by Mak2 (Mak Ying Tung 2) from her “Home Sweet Home” series, at prices ranging from $30,000–$60,000. One of Mak2’s pencil sketches also sold for more than $3,000, and two Wang Jiajia canvasses sold for $20,000 to $63,000.