On June 1st, the second round of spring auctions in Hong Kong ended one after another, with the most eye-catching Christie's Hong Kong 20th and 21st Century Art Spring series auctions totaling HKD 1.24 billion and a total transaction volume ratio of 90%. The auction broke the world auction record for 14 artists and produced 36 auctions worth over HKD 10 million.
Among them, the "Post Millennium Evening Auction" and "20th and 21st Century Art Evening Auction" were held successively, with two auctions grossing a total transaction value of HKD 889 million. From this, it can be seen that the Asian market is in fierce demand, while also witnessing the market's crazy competition for young collectors and artists.
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Christie's 20 23 Hong Kong Spring Shooting Scene
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Christie's 20 23 Hong Kong Spring Shooting Scene
Younger buyers
Millennial new generation collectors are increasing year by year
Looking at the 2023 Christie's Hong Kong spring auction, the buyer composition data is the most eye-catching: millennial new generation buyers accounted for nearly 50% of the new buyers who participated in the auction for the first time, attracting enthusiastic bids from collectors from 29 countries on six continents. 7.6 million viewers worldwide watched the auction live online.
Looking at another set of data from previous years: for the entire year 2021, the proportion of millennials to new buyers was 31%; In 2022, 35% of all buyers will participate in Christie's auction for the first time, 65% of them will participate in Online auction, and 34% of new buyers will be Millennial New Generation.
The rapid growth of millennial new generation buyers in the past two years once again reflects that the transition between old and new in the collection industry is accelerating.
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Christie's 2023 Hong Kong Spring Shooting Scene
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Christie's 2023 Hong Kong Spring Shooting Scene
It is necessary to note that the concept of "millennials" mentioned here comes from the international specialized intergenerational term "millennials", which is English for Millennials. It was proposed by American writers William Strauss and Neil Howe and refers to a generation born in the early 1980s to the mid-1990s who gradually entered their youth or adulthood around the millennium. For example, millennial artists refer more to the younger generation of creators such as those born in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.
With the rapid development of science and technology, the "millennial generation" has witnessed the rapid progress from the Internet to mobile terminals, from smart phones, social media, short videos to AR, VR, Metaverse, AI artificial intelligence... All kinds of digital technology products, social software, images fill their daily life, and technology has also changed everyone's lifestyle. At the same time, influenced by images and videos, their visual aesthetics have naturally undergone a transformation. In recent years, fluorescent painting has dominated the contemporary art market, which is not unrelated to this.
Millennial collectors have many commonalities, such as being wealthy, inheritors of family wealth, or social elites. Most of them have overseas study backgrounds, can quickly connect with the international art community, and can quickly accept new things... Compared with collectors of other age groups, millennial collectors have a more diverse artistic taste and collection choices, and they value the artistic and aesthetic value of their works more, Rather than the title and resume of the creator. Another point is that those who are widely socialized are more concerned about the "sense of participation" in their collections. In addition to offline participation, they also enjoy online trading and sharing their gains.
Christie's is well aware of the characteristics of this group of people and opened the "Post Millennium Evening Auction" special session as early as the autumn of 2022, which received strong response. The total transaction amount was HKD 139 million, with a total transaction rate of 94%. This year's "Post Millennial Evening Auction" special session, with a total transaction value of HKD 163 million and a transaction rate of 90.3%, produced 4 million lots, and multiple artists set records for transactions. At the same time, the veteran auction house Christie's has also become a youthful trend, constantly meeting and interacting with young buyers through social platforms such as TikTok, WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Instagram, and live streaming, further narrowing their relationship with each other.
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Christie's 2023 Hong Kong Spring Shooting Scene
In addition, this auction attracted enthusiastic bidding from Asian collectors, with the total bidding volume from mainland Chinese collectors accounting for twice that of the spring of 2022, and the bidding volume from Southeast Asia region being twice that of 2021.
Lin Jiaru, Co Director of the 20th and 21st Century Arts Department of Christie's Asia Pacific Region, stated: "The art masterpieces auctioned in this season attracted a large number of millennial new generation buyers to participate in the auction, which witnessed their eclectic and diverse collection style. This auction has achieved brilliant results, and this strong momentum will continue to the upcoming evening auction after the millennium in the autumn of 2023. This special planning event will join hands with the legendary Chinese pop music king and visionary art collector Jay Chou to present an epoch-making blockbuster cooperation."
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Christie's "Millennial Evening Auction" this autumn will jointly present a blockbuster cooperation with Jay Chou
Photo provided by: Javier Music
Modern art masters absent for late filming
Concentrated appearance of contemporary backbone forces in China
The high-profile "Twentieth and Twenty first Century Art Evening Auction", without the usual visitors - Chang Yu, Picasso and other modern art masters, led the auction by a number of Chinese and Western modern and contemporary art stars, including: Jean Michel Baschia, Jeff Koons, Renee Magritte, Jean Paul Riopel, Mark Chagall, Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Liu Ye, Zeng Fanzhi, etc. Also on the last round of Hong Kong Spring Auction, many works of the trump artists Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara were sold.
After the war, no auction of 100 million yuan came into being. The works that won the top deal price of this evening auction are contemporary works of art, namely, Jean Michel Baschia's Black, Jeff Koons's Sacred Heart and Yayoi Kusama's Flower. It broke the personal auction record of Paul Cézanne, Singaporean artist Georgette Chen and Taiwan, China artist Xu Dongrong, and also set the third highest price of Jin Changlie and Kawashima Shintaro. China's modern and contemporary art has played a steady role, with Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, Zeng Fanzhi and Liu Ye trading for more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
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Jean Michel Baschia (1960-1988)
Black "was written in 1986
Transaction price: HKD 62.6 million
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Jeff Koons (born in 1955)
Sacred Heart (Purple Red/Gold), written from 1994 to 2007
Transaction price: HKD 60.875 million
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Yayoi Kusama (born in 1929)
Hua "was written in 2015
Transaction price: HKD 58.455 million
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Georgette Chen (1906-1993)
Still Life and Durian, circa 1965
Transaction price: HKD 14.29 million
Breaking Artist World Auction Record
In the "Post Millennium Evening Auction", Chinese post-70s and post-80s contemporary artists made a concentrated appearance, accounting for about 1/3 of the total lot, including Liang Yuanwei, Cui Jie, Hu Xiaoyuan, Xia Yu, Chen Fei, Jia Aili, Wang Guangle and many other popular artists' works. It can be seen that the Hong Kong market and the mainland market are also paying attention to the backbone of Chinese contemporary art.
This auction refreshed Chinese artists Cui Jie and Hu Xiaoyuan; And the auction records of Atstushi Kaga and Dominique Fung; Several artists, including Nicholas Patty and Leung Yuanwei, have set the second highest price for artist auctions. The top three auctions were "Still Life" created by the popular post-80s art tycoon Nicholas Patty (B.1980) in 2015, which sold for HKD 39.095 million. In the past three years, this young artist has set a total of 10 personal auction records; American contemporary art star Avery Xinya (B.1987) sold "Untitled" for HKD 31.835 million; Chinese artist Liang Yuanwei (B.1977) sold "The Stix River" for HKD 14.895 million, becoming the third highest price at this auction.
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Nicholas Patty (born in 1980)
Still Life, written in 2015
Transaction price: HKD 39.095 million
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Avery Xinya (born in 1987)
Untitled, 2016
Transaction price: HKD 31.835 million
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Liang Yuanwei (born in 1977)
Stix River, 2009
Transaction price: HKD 14.895 million
Cristian Albu, Co Director of the 20th and 21st Century Arts Department at Christie's Asia Pacific, stated: "This season's series of auctions has been carefully planned with a unique approach and received enthusiastic responses from collectors. We are very excited to be able to bring the masterpieces of two modern and contemporary western art giants, Renee Magritte and Jeff Koons, to Christie's Asia auction house for the first time. They are warmly sought after by many collectors and have become the two most eye-catching auctions in this season's series of auctions. This auction has witnessed the brilliant works of Asian and western art masters The excellent performance has also attracted multiple new buyers to participate in Christie's auction for the first time, indicating that the demand for 20th and 21st century art masterpieces in the Asian market is still fierce and diverse.
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Renee Margaret (1898-1967)
The Wandering Path of Lovers, 1929-1930
Transaction price: HKD 51.195 million