TOPIC

Auctions

Auctions
Reporting on the latest auctions of luxury goods, including watches, handbags, high jewellery and fine art
This year’s Art Central features 108 galleries from around the world, showcasing a diverse selection of contemporary art, such as Lee In Seob’s Resonance of Time (2025). Photo: Handout
Art Basel

Beyond Art Basel 2025: 5 events to check out during Hong Kong Art Week

The city’s art fans are spoiled for choice this Art Months: as well as Art Basel, there’s Art Central and 1880 Hong Kong, plus events at Sotheby’s, Pacific Place, The Upper House and Hong Kong Arts Centre.

Law

23andMe’s bankruptcy puts 15 million users’ DNA data on auction block

Art

Art sold at auction hits 15-year low, led by plunge in China market

4
Art

Rare Banksy painting, owned by blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, heads to London auction

Crude Oil (Vettriano) is Banksy’s reimagining of 1992 painting The Singing Butler by Scottish artist Jack Vettriano, who died on Monday.

Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 poses stands by his painting Crude Oil (Vettriano) by Banksy (2005), which is being auctioned by Sotheby’s on Monday. Photo: Sotheby’s via AP
Technology

Opinion | Rather than resist AI art, Asia is embracing its future

While protests rage from New York to London, artists from China and Japan to India and Singapore are using AI to better their craft.

videocam
Art

This sculpture was lost for a century – then auctioned for millions

Camille Claudel, a lover and muse of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, created the sculpture in the late 19th century – it was recently discovered in an abandoned flat.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Hong Kong economy

Buyers quick off mark as Hong Kong car plates ‘S’ and ‘88’ go for millions

‘S’ plate, a rare single-letter registration mark, fetches HK$14.2 million while “88” makes HK$11.4 million.

The single letter “S” plate had an opening price of just HK$5,000. Photo: Handout
Classical music

Stradivarius violin could become most expensive music instrument ever sold

‘Joachim-Ma Stradivarius’ – which could fetch up to US$18 million – is named for two famed owners including late Chinese virtuoso Ma Si-Hon.

Special Report - Jewellery

High time: it takes savoir faire to make a true haute joaillerie watch

Haute joaillerie timepieces blend watchmaking prowess with fine jewellery artistry, setting such exemplars apart from more everyday gem-set pieces.

Special Report - Jewellery

Why the Paraiba tourmaline is jewellery’s rising star

Discovered in Brazil in the 80s, these stones are bringing new colour to high jewellery collections.

Boghossian Palace Voyages Taman Sari Flowing Droplets necklace and earrings. Photo: Handout
Timepieces

Is now the best time to invest in luxury watches? How to shop second-hand

The luxury watch market is cooling down after the pandemic-fuelled boom, offering an opportunity for collectors to snag coveted timepieces at more affordable prices.

In November, Phillips in association with Bacs &Russo presented the “Toki: Watch Auction”, focused on watch collecting in Japan. Photo: Handout
Archaeology and palaeontology

Ancient stone tablet engraved with Ten Commandments sells for US$5 million

The high figure was notched despite questions around the slab’s authenticity, with some experts expressing doubts about its origins.

History

Rare Roman coin sells for US$2.09 million at Geneva auction

Historic item was minted in 43-42 BC and features a portrait of Brutus, the assassin of Julius Caesar. It was originally priced at US$843,000.

Fame and celebrity

Ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz sell for US$28 million

The shoes were stolen from a Michigan museum in 2005 and their whereabouts remained a mystery until the FBI recovered them in 2018.

Dorothy’s ruby slippers, worn by Judy Garland in the film The Wizard of Oz. Photo: EPA-EFE
Art

Exclusive | Hong Kong art photography fair cancelled months before its debut

Photofairs Hong Kong, slated for March 2025, scrapped by UK-based organiser because of unspecified ‘logistical constraints’.

Visitors attend the 2018 edition of Photofairs Shanghai, the city where the photographic art fair began in 2014 and where it will again be held in 2025. Plans for a Hong Kong edition of the fair in 2025 have been scrapped. Photo: Handout
Formula One (F1)

Ex-Formula 1 chief Ecclestone selling Schumacher Ferrari in £300m car auction

Former Formula 1 boss is said to have world’s greatest collection of motor-racing machines, including cars driven by several world champions.

Art

Scott Kahn was down and out. Then fellow artist Matthew Wong bought a work

When Matthew Wong revealed he had bought one of Kahn’s paintings, Hong Kong collectors took an interest. At 78, Kahn has first show in Asia.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Hong Kong property

Art houses Christie’s, Sotheby’s show off flashy new Hong Kong showrooms

The auction houses’ glammed up spaces are a reflection of their desire to change the way they conduct business.

A view of Sotheby’s new space in Hong Kong. Photo: Facebook
Art

Duct-taped banana artist says US$6.2 million work a ‘provocation’

‘It invites us to reflect on the value of art’, Maurizio Cattelan says after Chinese entrepreneur buys work for US$6.2 million at auction.

Special Report - Jewellery

Bidders set the bar high at Hong Kong’s buoyant autumn auctions

Results highlight the enduring appeal of exceptional pieces by iconic high jewellery maisons such as Cartier, Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Art

Chinese crypto entrepreneur pays US$6.2 million for banana taped to wall

Sotheby’s confirmed that Justin Sun was the buyer of artist Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian sculpture at its auction yesterday.

FILE - Artist Maurizio Cattelan’s piece of art “Comedian” hangs on display during an auction preview at Sotheby’s in New York, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
Art

Hopes Magritte and Monet masterpieces can shake up stale auction market

Christie’s and Sotheby’s New York auctions this week also include works by Ed Ruscha and Keith Haring and one of Maurizio Cattelan’s bananas.

One of Rene Magritte’s Empire of Light paintings from 1954 is displayed during a preview for a November 19 Christie’s auction in New York. Photo: AFP
Art

Mark Rothko painting goes for 30% less than in 2015 in Hong Kong sale

Untitled (Yellow and Blue) by Mark Rothko, once owned by fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low, fetches US$33 million at Sotheby’s auction.

Books and literature

Copy of The Little Prince worth US$1.25 million for sale at art fair

For sale in the UAE, the typescript, one of only three known to exist, contains handwritten corrections by author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Art

Humanoid robot’s artwork of Alan Turing sells for US$1.3 million

Portrait by the world’s first ultra-realistic robot artist smashed presale expectations of US$180,000.

Ai-Da in front of the portrait of Alan Turing. Photo: Sotheby’s via EPA-EFE
Hong Kong

Why scientists have a bone to pick with dinosaur fossil in Hong Kong

Hector the Deinonychus highlights how, like works of art, fossils too can be sold to the highest bidder. That has palaeontologists worried.

“Hector” the Deinonychus is a dinosaur fossil that was sold in 2022 by Christie’s auction house for US$12.4 million. The skeleton is currently on display in a permanent exhibition at the Hong Kong Science Museum. Photo: Christie’s
Timepieces

Meet the co-founder and CEO of Jay-Z-backed Wristcheck, Austen Chu

Comedian Kevin Hart also used the marketplace to find the Audemars Piguet Jules Audemars Grande Sonnerie he recently wore on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

videocam
Music

Michael Jackson jacket, Noel Gallagher guitar in music-themed auction

Beatle John Lennon’s first Vox amp, a Michael Jackson jacket, handwritten lyrics and a synthesiser Prince used are among lots in UK auction.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.
SUPPORT NOW
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement