HONG KONG (Reuters) - A work by Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi sold for $9.5 million on Saturday, a new auction record for an Asian contemporary artwork, at auctioneer Christie's first evening sale of such art in Hong Kong.
Other records also fell as the auction brought a dash of black-tie glamour to the former British colony's art market, considered the world's third most important auction hub after New York and London.
Affluent Asian collectors in suits and evening dresses were served champagne and canapes before bidding in a packed auction hall. The results suggested the Chinese art market remains resilient despite financial market jitters and lingering fallout from the subprime crisis.
The highlight of the evening was Zeng Fanzhi's large-scale 2-by-3.6 meter work entitled "Mask Series 1996 No. 6", which sold for almost triple its pre-sale estimate. Several telephone bidders helped push the price to HK$75.37 million including the buyer's premium, making it the most expensive Asian contemporary artwork sold at auction, Christie's said.
Zeng's diptych of eight masked youths with red scarves linking arms, hints at Mao Ze-dong's "Little Red Guards" who wreaked social havoc across China during its tumultuous Cultural Revolution. The work, not previously offered at auction, is considered a highlight of Zeng's "Mask" series of ambiguous Chinese figures contending with life under communist party rule.
The previous record for an Asian contemporary artwork was for a set of 14 "gunpowder" drawings by Chinese artist Cai Guoqiang which sold for HK$74.25 million last November.
Other notable results included Chinese contemporary artist Yue Minjun's "Gweong-Gweong", sold for HK$54.1 million ($6.85 million), a new auction record for the artist.
Zeng and Yue are among a group of red-hot Chinese contemporary artists, also including Cai Guoqiang and Zhang Xiaogang, whose works have sold for $6 million or more. A remarkable surge in demand for Chinese art in recent years has been spurred partly by newly affluent Chinese collectors.
