Christie’s opened Hong Kong’s auction week alongside Art Basel on a confident note last night (27 Mar), delivering a white‑glove evening sale that brought in nearly HK$656 million (US$83.8 million). All 37 lots found buyers, marking a strong start to the house’s 40th‑anniversary sale series in Asia.
The top lot was Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1991), hammering for HK$76 million and fetching HK$92.1 million (US$11.7 million) with fees. It sold to phone bidder paddle 8142, represented by Ada Tsui (Head of Evening Sale and Specialist, 20th and 21st Century Art Department, APAC).
Another standout was Sanyu’s Cheval agenouillé sur un tapis (Kneeling Horse on Carpet), a rare horse painting featuring a carpet patterned with Chinese auspicious symbols. Chased by at least seven phone bidders, it went for HK$63.9 million with fees – more than double its pre‑sale estimate of HK$28 million.
The sale also yielded four artist records: Walter Spies, whose Balinese landscape achieved nearly HK$59.1 million with fees and ranked as the third‑highest price of the night, along with 17th-century Dutch naturalist‑artist Johannes Goedaert, Ireland‑based Japanese artist Atsushi Kaga, and German painter Lenz Geerk.
Kevin Ching (Chairman of Christie's Asia) with Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild
Lot 8 | Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) | Abstraktes Bild, oil on canvas
Painted in 1991
200 x 180 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Liliane & Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris
- Private collection, France (acquired from the above in 1991)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2015
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$78,000,000 - 98,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$76,000,000
Sold: HK$92,100,000 (US$11.7 million)
At 93, Gerhard Richter is back in the spotlight with a critically acclaimed retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, drawing renewed attention to the breadth and evolution of the German artist's experimental practice.
During London sales last month, a closely related work from the same year, slightly smaller in scale, sold for £7.6 million (around US$10 million) at Christie’s.
Ada Tsui won the lot for her client
Abstraktes Bild (1991) | 112 x 102 cm | Sold: £7,600,000, Christie's London, 2026
Gerhard Richter
The Abstraktes Bild series is widely regarded as one of Richter's most important contributions to post‑war painting. Begun in 1976 and developed in phases over the following decades, it represents a sustained response to a deceptively simple question: what can painting still do in a world oversaturated with images?
While his earlier photo‑paintings and grey monochromes deconstructed figuration and the illusion of objectivity, Abstraktes Bild marked a shift to the physical language of paint – an embrace of materiality, chance, and gesture as valid means of constructing an image.
Central to these canvases is the squeegee: a large, custom‑made tool that Richter drags across wet oil paint in successive, overlapping passes. Each pull erases portions of the surface while revealing new configurations of colour, form, and depth. Layers are built up and scraped back in a continual cycle of construction and erasure, leaving surfaces of striking visual complexity.
Gerhard Richter in his studio
Close-up of the present lot
Close-up of the present lot
The present Abstraktes Bild is composed of vast stretches of layered, vivid red. It belongs to an exceptionally rare group within Richter’s oeuvre: only in 1991 did he make canvases dominated by this colour, and this is one of just 27 red Abstraktes Bild works, three of which are now held in institutional collections.
It dates from a period now recognised as a high point in Richter's practice. In 1991, a major retrospective at the Tate Gallery in London cemented Richter’s position with an international audience, following earlier landmark touring exhibitions across Europe and the U.S. between 1986 and 1988.
Never before offered at auction, this painting was acquired from and exhibited at the influential Galerie Liliane & Michel Durand‑Dessert in Paris – known for championing avant-garde artists and movements, including Arte Povera, among others.
Lot 9 | Sanyu (Changyu, 1895-1966) | Cheval agenouillé sur un tapis (Kneeling Horse on Carpet), oil on masonite
Painted in the 1950s-1960s
49 x 74.2 cm
Provenance:
- Collection of the Lévy family, Paris (acquired directly from the artist)
- Thence by descent to the present owner
Estimate: HK$28,000,000 - 48,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$52,000,000
Sold: HK$63,940,000 (US$8.2 million)
A rare example of Sanyu’s horse paintings, and one of only nine known works to depict a circus scene, Cheval agenouillé sur un tapis (Kneeling Horse on Carpet) sparked a heated contest on the phones.
Bidding opened at HK$20 million and attracted multiple bidders, including telephone clients represented by Ada Ong (Chairman, Taiwan), Chi‑fan Tsang (International Director, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art), and Eric Chang (Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art, APAC).
After roughly 17 bids, the work was hammered down at HK$52 million to Ong’s client with paddle 8241. With fees, it realised HK$63.9 million (US$8.2 million).
Peking circus (1950/1960s), 82 x 121 cm | Collection of National Museum of History, Taiwan
Horses run through almost four decades of Sanyu’s work. Of the 87 known oil paintings featuring animals – including giraffes, elephants, leopards, cows, and fish – horses account for 35. Six of these are in the National Museum of History in Taipei, and one is in the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
Sanyu arrived in Paris from south‑western China in 1921 and quickly forged a distinctive blend of Chinese line and Western modernism. By the late 1940s, years of financial hardship and wartime scarcity had left him struggling, but he never abandoned his artistic pursuit, once remarking: “The misery of the lives of artists. They ought to be poor, always poor, until the end. I could abandon all that I have now. But there is a chance: My love has not died yet.”
The horse held particular personal meaning for Sanyu’s father, Chang Shufang, known in Nanchong for his horse paintings; in Paris, Sanyu nicknamed his wife, Marcelle Charlotte Guyot de la Hardrouyère, “Ma” – a play on the Chinese word for “horse.” The animal also reads as a kind of self‑portrait: born into privilege but later beset by hardship, Sanyu often places solitary horses against vast, empty grounds – images of solitude and longing after years away from home.
Close-up of the present lot
A bowing horse
In Kneeling Horse on Carpet, the horse appears in a circus setting before a rich burgundy backdrop. It gently bows to the audience on a golden carpet, its pale form illuminated against the saturated field. The colour seems to diffuse outward, drawing the gaze toward an undefined horizon.
The scene balances solemnity and solitude, unfolding with a quiet but resonant drama, as if the horse were caught in a silent spotlight. The carpet is decorated with three Chinese motifs – fu (good fortune), lu (prosperity), and shou (longevity) – emblems of a blessed life laid literally beneath the horse’s feet.
Only two known works combine a horse with a carpet patterned with fu, lu, and shou, including this painting. While the other example’s whereabouts are unknown, the present work boasts an impeccable provenance, acquired directly by and kept for generations within the Lévy family – close friends and important supporters of Sanyu.
Lot 18 | Walter Spies (1895-1942) | Blick von der höhe (A view from the heights), oil on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Painted in 1934
100.5 x 82.5 cm
Provenance (Consolidated by The Value):
- Collection of Sir Victor Sassoon (acquired directly from the artist)
- Collection of Mrs Michael Wood (by descent from the above)
- Christie's Singapore, 30 September 2001, lot 228 (Sold: SG$1,879,750)
- Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above)
- Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 5 October 2013, lot 33 (Sold: HK$31,480,000)
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$48,000,000 - 68,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$48,000,000
Sold: HK$59,060,000 (US$7.5 million)
Walter Spies is known for his blend of European modernism and Balinese subject matter, and for a distinctive handling of light and shadow. Works by the artist are rarely seen at auction, and Blick von der Höhe (A View from the Heights) is a vibrant portrayal of the Balinese countryside, painted during his mature Bali years and reproduced in major publications on his work.
Having set Spies’s auction record twice before, Blick von der Höhe has now raised the bar again, achieving around HK$59.1 million with fees (US$7.5 million). The painting drew interest from at least three bidders, including Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s newly appointed President for Asia Pacific, who quickly drove the price to HK$38 million.
After three more bids, he stepped out at HK$47 million, leaving Kim Chuan Mok (Managing Director, Singapore) to secure the work for his client with paddle 8148 at HK$48 million.
The result surpassed the artist's previous record set in 2022, when Tierfabel (Animal Fable) sold for SG$4 million (US$3 million) at Sotheby’s Singapore.
Tierfabel (Animal fable) | Sold: SG$4,032,000, Sotheby's Singapore, 2022 (Previous auction record for the artist)
Walter Spies
Born in Russia and raised in Germany, Spies settled in the Dutch East Indies in the 1920s and made Bali his home from 1927 until the early 1940s.
His fascination with Asia had begun earlier, fed by travellers’ tales and by seeing works from the Dutch colonies at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. At the same time, Henri Rousseau’s “primitive” jungle scenes were in vogue; Spies admired their stylised wonder and carried that sensibility into his own depictions of the tropics.
In Bali, he immersed himself in local life and ritual, learned the language, collaborated with Balinese artists and helped to co‑found the Pita Maha artists’ cooperative. Through this close engagement, his painting developed a quietly “magical realist” register – a fusion of observed detail and spiritual atmosphere.
Henri Rousseau | The Waterfall (1910) | The Art Institute of Chicago
Bali
In Blick von der Höhe, that sensibility shapes both landscape and figures. Bands of dense, tiered foliage segment the canvas into interlocking vistas, each alive with small incidents of rural life, while the villagers are rendered with marked tenderness rather than ethnographic distance.
Under the last light of day, some rest in the shade as others return from the fields; in the lower corner, a farmer pauses, arm resting on a bent knee as he surveys the land he tills – an image that encapsulates Spies’s meditative, deeply sympathetic gaze toward the island he chose as his adopted home.
Close-up of the present lot
Close-up of the present lot
Other Highlight Lots:
Lot 30 | Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) | Pumpkin, acrylic on canvas
Painted in 1993
91 x 116.8 cm
Provenance:
- Jean Art Gallery, Seoul
- Private collection, Asia (acquired from the above in 2003)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$32,000,000 - 40,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$32,000,000
Sold: HK$39,540,000
Lot 12 | David Hockney (b. 1937) | The Chair, oil on canvas
Painted in 1985
121.9 x 91.4 cm
Provenance:
- Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York
- Nohra Haime Gallery, New York (acquired from the above in 1994)
- Private collection (acquired from the above)
- Sotheby’s London, 29 June 2021, lot 9
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$32,000,000 - 48,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$31,500,000
Sold: HK$38,930,000
Lot 17 | Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji, 1920-2013) | Cathédrale et ses environs - 07.08.51-08.09.51 (Cathedral and Its Surroundings - 07.08.51-08.09.51), oil on canvas
Painted in 1951
97 x 130 cm
Provenance:
- Main Street Gallery, Chicago (acquired directly from the artist circa 1952)
- Private collection, USA
- Private collection, Asia
- Christie's Hong Kong, 27 November 2010, lot 1005
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$28,000,000 - 38,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$28,000,000
Sold: HK$34,660,000
Lot 7 | Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) | Meisje in het bosch (A Girl in a Wood), oil on canvas laid down on cradled panel
Painted in The Hague, August 1883
34.7 x 47.3 cm
Provenance:
- Anna van Gogh-Carbentus, Nuenen and Breda (the artist's mother)
- Janus Schrauwen, Breda (from the above, April 1888)
- Jan C. Couvreur, Breda (acquired from the above, 14 August 1902)
- Kees Mouwen Jr. and Willem van Bakel, Breda (acquired from the above, 1902 - 1903)
- Kunstzalen Oldenzeel, Rotterdam (on consignment from the above by 1903)
- A.G. van Hamel, Groningen (acquired from the above circa 1904)
- G.M. van Hamel, Amsterdam (by descent from the above by 1907, until at least 1965)
- Kunsthandel Ivo Bouwman, The Hague
- Private collection, USA (acquired from the above)
- Private collection; sale, Christie's New York, 8 May 2002, lot 229 (dated 'August 1882')
- Private collection (acquired at the above sale)
- Thence by descent to the present owner
Estimate: HK$10,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$27,000,000
Sold: HK$33,440,000
Lot 25 | Chu Teh-chun (Zhu Dequn, 1920-2014) | Azur glaciaire (Glacial Blue), oil on canvas (triptych)
Painted in 2004
Overall: 195.2 x 390.3 cm
Provenance:
- Marlborough Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$26,000,000 - 36,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$25,000,000
Sold: HK$31,000,000
Lot 15 | Marc Chagall (1887-1985) | Pastorale, oil on canvas
Painted in 1975-76
135 x 113.7 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection, Geneva
- Private collection (acquired from the above in 1993); sale, Sotheby's New York, 6 November 2013, lot 63 (titled 'Le violoniste sous la lune,' dated '1975')
- Private collection (acquired at the above sale); sale, Christie's London, 2 February 2016, lot 35 (titled 'Le violoniste sous la lune,' dated '1975')
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$23,000,000 - 33,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$23,000,000
Sold: HK$28,560,000
Lot 13 | Sanyu (Chang Yu, 1895-1966) | Modèle nue, assise, de dos II (Seated Nude Model, Viewed from the Back II), oil on canvas
Painted in 1929-1932
72.8 x 49.9 cm
Provenance:
- Henri-Pierre Roché, Paris (acquired directly from the artist circa 1930s, inventory no. 48)
- Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris (acquired from Denise Roché, widow of Henri-Pierre Roché, in October 1971)
- L.M.W. van Oosterom, Rotterdam (acquired from the above in 1977)
- Thence by descent to the present owner
Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$11,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$21,000,000
Sold: HK$26,120,000
Lot 6 | Claude Monet (1840-1926) | La maison à travers les roses, oil on canvas
Painted in Giverny in 1925-1926
62.2 x 81.6 cm
Provenance:
- Michel Monet, Giverny (by descent from the artist)
- Stephen Hahn Gallery, New York
- Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above on 13 January 1984)
- Private collection, Europe (acquired from the above on 13 March 1987); sale, Christie's London, 24 June 1998, lot 37
- Private collection, California (acquired at the above sale); sale, Sotheby’s New York, 13 November 2018, lot 425
- Private collection, Texas (acquired at the above sale)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$16,000,000 - 26,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$18,500,000
Sold: HK$23,070,000
Lot 10 | Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) | Untitled, oilstick and acrylic on paper
Executed in 1981
76.2 x 56.1 cm
Provenance:
- Gagosian, Los Angeles
- Private collection, New York (acquired from the above)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Subject to Third-party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$18,000,000 - 28,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$17,800,000
Sold: HK$22,216,000
Lot 14 | Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) | Madeleine au corsage blanc et bouquet de fleurs, oil on canvas
Painted circa 1915-1919
54.9 x 50.3 cm
Provenance:
- The artist's estate
- Paul Guillaume, Paris, by 1929
- Mrs Paul Guillaume, Paris (by descent from the above by 1934, possibly until at least 1957)
- Anonymous sale; Palais Galliéra, Paris, 12 June 1964, lot 105
- Nichido Galerie, Tokyo (acquired in 1989)
- Private collection; sale, Christie's, New York, 8 May 2000, lot 45
- Private collection, USA (acquired at the above sale); sale, Christie’s London, 24 June 2014, lot 42
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$11,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$14,000,000
Sold: HK$17,580,000
Lot 11 | Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) | Nu couché et musicien, oil and Ripolin on canvas
Painted on 24 March 1967
50 x 61.1 cm
Provenance:
- Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris
- Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above in May 1968)
- Private collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in August 1968)
- Galerie Beyeler, Basel (acquired from the above in November 1975)
- Private collection, France (acquired from the above in August 1985)
- Anon. sale, Christie's London, 9 December 1998, lot 703
- Private collection (acquired at the above sale); sale, Christie's New York, 14 May 2019, lot 389
- Private collection (acquired at the above sale); sale, Phillips Hong Kong, 8 June 2021, lot 29
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$10,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$12,500,000
Sold: HK$15,750,000
Lot 24 | Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji, 1920-2013) | 22.10.60, oil on canvas
Painted in 1960
54.5 x 65 cm
Provenance:
- Kootz Gallery, New York
- Collection of Oscar M. and Zelia P. Ruebhausen, New York (acquired from the above in the 1960s)
- Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2005, lot 242
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$15,000,000 - 22,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$12,000,000
Sold: HK$15,140,000
Lot 16 | Johannes Goedaert (1617-1668) | Flowers in a Chinese porcelain vase, with butterflies and other insects, oil on panel (Auction record for the artist)
28.2 x 22 cm
Provenance:
- Wolff collection, from whom acquired in April 1934 by the following,
- with Kunsthandel P. de Boer, Amsterdam, where acquired by,
- Dr. J. Th. Berkemeier, Rotterdam, until at least 1955
- Private collection (according to exh. cat. Amsterdam 1984)
- with Charles Roelofs, Amsterdam, where acquired by the family of the present owner in 1995
Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$3,500,000 - 5,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$8,000,000
Sold: HK$10,160,000
Lot 32 | Lee Ufan (b. 1936) | From Line, oil and mineral pigment on canvas
Painted in 1978
130.5 x 162 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection (acquired directly from the artist circa 1982)
- Private collection, Japan
- Private collection, Korea (acquired from the above)
- BLUM Gallery, Los Angeles
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Subject to Third-Party Guarantee
Estimate: HK$8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$7,800,000
Sold: HK$9,906,000
Lot 37 | Ju Ming (Zhu Ming, 1938-2023) | Taichi Series, bronze sculpture (a pair of two)
Executed in 1996
Edition: 3/8
Left: 191 x 189.4 x 158.6 cm | Right: 238.2 x 214.2 x 162 cm
Provenance:
- Private collection, Hong Kong
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$4,500,000 - 6,500,000
Hammer Price: HK$6,200,000
Sold: HK$7,874,000
Lot 33 | Rhee Seundja (1918-2009) | Une anémone sauvage (A Wild Anemone), oil on canvas
Painted in 1962
145.4 x 113.2 cm
Provenance:
- Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
Estimate: HK$2,800,000 - 4,800,000
Hammer Price: HK$4,500,000
Sold: HK$5,715,000
Lot 5 | Salvo (1947-2015) | La fine del giorno (The End of the Day), oil on canvas
Painted in 2014
100 x 150 cm
Provenance:
- Galleria D'Arte Moderna Fratelli Orler, Venice
- Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014
Estimate: HK$1,400,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer Price: HK$3,800,000
Sold: HK$4,826,000
Lot 28 | Atsushi Kaga (b. 1978) | YES! (A bag made by my mother), acrylic, imitation gold leaf on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Painted in 2021
150 x 120 cm
Provenance:
- Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$500,000 - 1,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$3,600,000
Sold: HK$4,572,000
Lot 34 | Lee Bae (b. 1956) | Brushstroke-9F, charcoal ink on paper
Painted in 2023
220 x 152 cm
Provenance:
- Johyun Gallery
- Private collection, Asia
Estimate: HK$450,000 - 650,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,900,000
Sold: HK$2,413,000
Lot 26 | Natee Utarit (b. 1970 ) | Micro history of politic no. 4 – Lost, oil on canvas
Painted in 2007
179.8 x 160 cm
Provenance:
- Numthong Gallery, Bangkok
- Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 6 Oct 2009, lot 368
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: HK$600,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,880,000
Sold: HK$2,387,600
Lot 4 | Lenz Geerk (b. 1988) | Couple on a Fresco, acrylic on canvas (Auction record for the artist)
Painted in 2019
180 x 129.9 cm
Provenance:
- Roberts Projects, Los Angeles
- Private collection
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$1,000,000 - 2,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,700,000
Sold: HK$2,159,000
Lot 1 | Li Hei Di (b. 1997) | In the Excitement of Dying, oil on canvas
Painted in 2022
110 x 100 cm
Provenance:
- LINSEED Projects, Shanghai
- Private collection, Asia (acquired from the above in 2022)
- Pace Gallery, Hong Kong
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: HK$500,000 - 800,000
Hammer Price: HK$1,500,000
Sold: HK$1,905,000
Auction Details:
Auction House: Christie's Hong Kong
Sale: 20th/21st Century Evening Sale
Date: 27 March 2026
Number of Lots: 37
Sold: 37
Sale Rate: 100%
Sale Total: HK$655,761,000 (US$83.7 million)