The galleries and auction houses participating in this year’s Asia Week New York achieved $100.8 million in the 15th edition of the annual event. The nine-figure tally includes sales reported by 21 of the 28 participating galleries (two of which did not sell) and five of the six auction houses, as iGavelAuctions still conducts sales online.
Brendan Lynch, president of Asia Week New York, said in a statement that sales were “strong at auction houses and galleries.” The $100 million figure is nearly a quarter (24.1%) lower than last year’s sales, when Asia Week sold $131.2 million from 22 of the 26 participating galleries and five of the six auction houses.
“Overall, the Chinese economy can be blamed for being at a very low point,” Lynch said Art Newspaper in a statement Last year’s total was the strongest total since 2019, when $150 million in sales was reported. Organizers credited the success of last year’s event with Chinese collectors and dealers returning for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, after China opens its borders in early 2023.
Since then, mainland China’s art market has been challenged by economic slowdowns and home ownership crises. China (including Hong Kong), which accounts for 19% of art market sales by value at $12.2 billion, was “significantly slower” in the second half of 2023, according to the latest report on the global art market by Art Basel and UBS.
Steven Chait, president of Ralph M. Chait Galleries, called this year’s sales “healthy” in a statement. “Sales were a notch better than last year, and although there were fewer collectors in Hong Kong and mainland China, we hope to continue with the scouts who were here on their behalf,” he added.
Lynch said that while Chinese collectors may spend less, participating dealers sold works to American and Asian museums as usual and specific corners of the market, such as works by Indian artists, remained “highlighted”. Auction house totals were also largely down, and there were “no successful single-owner sales like the James J. Lally collection last year,” Asia Week New York executive director Margaret Tao said in a statement.
“The market as a whole is suffering from a lack of a younger generation of collectors. But there were billion-dollar sales in India and current auctions, so that market is growing,” Lynch said.
Christie’s set a new record for Francis Newton Souza in its South Asian Modern and Contemporary sale on 20 March. The lovers (1960), which had not been seen in public for decades, earned $4.8 million—almost five times the $1 million high estimate. Souza’s previous record was set in 2015, also by Christie’s in New York, when the house fetched $4 million. Birth (1955).
Souza’s market, along with other Indian modernists, has been heating up for a few years, but 2024 will mark the centenary of his birth and his work will be included in the main exhibition at the upcoming Venice Biennale (April 20-November 24). Accordingly, The lovers It was one of two dozen works by Souza that hit the block at Christie’s last week. Another top player was Souza’s Priest with chalicewhich sold for $3.9 million, against an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000.
Other modernists to break estimates at the Christie’s sale include Gulammohammed Sheikh Portrait of a tree (1975), which fetched $1.3 million, more than five times its $250,000 estimate.
Another Souza led Sotheby’s South Asia equivalent sales this month. House of Trees (1958), from the collection of Virginia and Ravi Akhoury, realized $571,500 against an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000.
Another success of the auction was the sale of the entire collection of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji It fetched more than $3.5 million, including commissions, breaking the artist’s auction record set at another Christie’s auction at Asia Week New York last year. Under the waves of Kanagawa It sold for $2.8 million, plus fees.
