Christie’s HK Asian Contemporary Art Day Sale: Top Prints & Photographs

Great Opportunities To Start A Collection On A Budget#

Set to take place one day after the Asian 20th Century & Contemporary Art Auction on May 26, Christie's Asian Contemporary Art day sale in Hong Kong will present an enticing spectrum of works from leading Chinese and other Asian artists like Fang Lijun, Zhang Xiaogang, Yue Minjun and Yoshitomo Nara. Owing to a growing number of collectors from mainland China and rising interest from local Hong Kong bidders, prices for blue-chip Chinese artists should remain buoyant at the upcoming Christie's auction series, but at the day sale, we expect a significant number of works to remain attainable for the new collector, who can't hope to compete with established buyers for large-scale works by the likes of Zhang, Yue and Zeng Fanzhi that reliably sell for millions of dollars.

With these works becoming increasingly scarce as a record number of mainland Chinese buy art to diversify assets and combat unreliable property and stock holdings, bidding will likely be intense for particularly attractive or rare works, but good buys will definitely be there for the taking. This is particularly true for lithographs and photographs -- two areas in which we're just now seeing Chinese collectors get involved. The upcoming auction features a number of signed lithographs by the likes of Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang, as well as works by blue-chip Chinese photographers like Cang Xin and Rong Rong that are, relative to large-scale oil paintings -- smart buys within the reach of new collectors.

Here are Jing Daily's top lots for the new collector at Christie's Asian Contemporary Art day sale in Hong Kong on May 27: