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Cash flowed, but confidence trickled on Day 1 of Art Basel Hong Kong, wherea cross-section of the 240 galleries offered a spectrum ofresponses to one simple question: How are sales?
At Hauser & Wirth, MarcPayot,presiding overa packed booth, described a “phenomenal” start, citing attendance fromseriouscollectors across Asia. By 5 p.m., several key workshadsold.Louise Bourgeois’s2002 sculptureCouple, a tender late-career figurine, fetched $2.2 million,andher2008etchingand mixed media on paper piece,À Baudelaire(#1),wentfor $2.95 million.Prismatic Head(2021), a painting by George Condo, who recently left the gallery,went for $2.3million.
AccordingtoPayot, there was high interest in the booth’stwo priciest offerings:the1956 AlexanderCaldermobileHorizontalandPablo Picasso’s 1965Chat etcrabesur la plage (Cat and Crab on the Beach).The gallery did notstatea price for either work.Meanwhile,Lee Bul, the subject of a stellar survey at M+, has entered another private museum in Asia withUntitled (“Infinity” wall),which soldfor $275,000.
“What we have done differently thisyearis this mix of historicalmaterial with contemporaryprogram, so a Calder paired with an Avery Singer; a Picasso withRoniHorn,”Payotsaid.“We try to keep as much available as possible for the fair.” He added,“Wedon’tbring this level of material to any other Asian art fair.”
David Zwirner reported selling a 2006 painting by Liu Ye for $3.8 million and a 2002 painting by Marlene Dumas for $3.8 million. Other seven-figure sales included the 1964 Pablo Picasso oil painting Le peintre et son modèle for €3.5 million at Berlin’s Bastian gallery, works by Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun for $2.8 million and $1.3 million respectively at Waddington Custon, Alex Katz’s Flowers 1 (2011) for $1.3 million, and Tracey Emin’s Take me to Heaven (2024) for £1.2 million at White Cube.
Lehman Maupin reported selling two early 2000s works by Lee Bul for $200,000–$300,000 each with an Asian museum, and a Kim Yun Shin sculpture around $100,000–$150,000 to a European collector. In a statement, cofounder David Maupin, said “Hong Kong’s art market is clearly in a steady phase of recovery, with a renewed energy felt across the fair and the city. As a gallery with strong roots in Asia, the region continues to play an essential role in our business.”
Perhaps nodealerappeared more gratified thanMarc Glimcher,CEO ofPace Gallery. “Things are better in Hong Kong than they have been in a long time,” Glimcher said, noting that the city’s energyhad been“downhill from Covid,” compounded by the “obvious political situation.” Without naming prices, he mentioned that a new painting byAnicka Yi, who recently joined the gallery’s roster, had sold, and that the gallery’s strong showing of Chinese painters—includingMao Yan,WangGuangle, andZhang Xiaogang—had proved popular.
But the moment belonged toModigliani, the subject of a catalogue raisonné fromInstitutRestellini, 30 years in the making and the focus of a 2027 exhibition jointly organized by Pace andRestellini. Glimcher toldARTnewshe hoped theRestelliniraisonné would finally supplant the Ceroni-produced book, which he declined todeema true catalogue raisonné.And if Modigliani fansaren’tyet enthused, Pace is bringing a piece from theRestellinicatalog to every upcoming fair, with prospective buyersreportedly biddingfromthe equivalent of $13.3 millionfor the portrait on offer in Hong Kong—the priciest work at the fair,we’dwager.
More highlights from that approximate price-range include—Tracey Emin’s vastacrylicpaintingTake me to Heaven(2024), at White Cube,forapproximately$1.6 million;a2006 painting by Liu Ye, at David Zwirner, for $3.8 million;andMartha Jungwirth’sOhneTitel(2021), at Thaddaeus Ropac,forroughly $532,000. (The Liu painting sold, as did the Jungwirth, which wentto a Chinese institution.)
Entry-level-pricedworksalsogot their due: Busan’sJohyunGallery reported 37 works sold, ranging from $9,000 to$180,000,among thempiecesbyPark Seo-Bo, Kim Taek Sang, and Lee Bae.
Zero 10, the digital-focused sector making its Asia debut, proved a favorite with curators and collectors, and buyersgenerally engagedbeyond conventional painting and sculpture. In the sector,Asprey Studiosold works byQuLeilei($45,000) andTim Yip($35,000).Lauren Tsai, whose Instagram following surpasses thegallery’s, marked her first collaboration withPerrotinvia a sculptural and video installation: a puppet whose head went to bed without its body, accompanied by a flickering television. The entire installationremainsonhold, with two pieces already sold. In the same booth,Steph Huang’s installationGrafting, which spills into the Encounters sector, had been earmarked by influential (butunnamed) institutions acrossmainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
In from San Francisco,Jessica SilvermanplacedAtsushi Kaga’sHomage toJakuchū– Panel 7(2025)with a US institution. The booth also featured a series of newJudy Chicagoworks: pearlescent panels evocative of “hothouses”—àlaAnaïs Nin—one of which pre-sold for $165,000.
Despite Chicago’s stature within the US,she’shad little market exposure in Asia, Silverman said. “Collectors haven’t had an opportunity to buy her art,” she explained, noting that outside this edition ofArtBasel, Chicago rarely appears at Asian fairs. Sales typically occur through direct gallery or auction-house channels.
By contrast, almost four hours into the preview, the upper floor remainedrelatively sedate. Silverman attributed this to the fair’s layout: with blue-chip galleries concentrated in Hall 1, crowds naturally flocked there first.
Richard Nagy, whose eponymous gallery had yet to make a sale by 7 p.m., credited his showing to differences in taste rather than geography. “Well, this year there are pretty much no galleries showing pre‑war art apart from us,” he said,havingnoted earlierAcquavella’s absence. “Last year this section was all secondarymarket,” he added, gesturing toward a long row occupied byAsia Art Centre.
“I’d guess the balance between the cost of Art Basel and the returns wasn’t good enough,” he said. Explaining further, he noted his gallery’s price points—$200,000 to $4 million—were higher than most, with the top spot held byPaul Delvaux’s monumentalNudes with the Statue of Marcus Aurelius.
“People are not confident about how the pricing is determined, so they probably come, ask, and then go away—logging onto Artnet instead,” he concluded.
Elsewhere on the floor,Charmaine Chan, a director at Hong Kong’sPearl Lam, struck a more measured note. While reporting several five-figure deals by 5 p.m., sheobservedthat the “decisive” buyingtypical oflocal collectors was noticeably absent.
“It’s obvious that sales are slower than usual,” she said, speaking as a veteran of the Art Basel Hong Kong branch.“Usually, Hong Kong buyers are quite decisive. Three years ago, we hadMr. Doodlein the booth, and we sold out on the first day.”
Her perspective contrasted with that ofPace’sMarc Glimcher, who framed the absence of some big collectors as a more relaxed dynamic. The gallery was in“no rush” to make a sale, he said.
Chan, in turn, saw the slower pace as a sign of Hong Kong’s unpredictablecollecting environment.“And wedon’tknow the solution to that,” she said.“In general, our market is still a question mark.”