Untitled (Yellow and Blue) by Mark Rothko has sold at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong for 30% less than it had previously achieved at auction amid a slowdown in the Asian art market.
Due to its viral notoriety, the painting was the centre of worldwide attention in 2022 for its resemblance to the Ukrainian flag, an echo that visually reverberated online amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the sale of a Mark Rothko painting failed to recapture its old value at the Sotheby’s sale on 11 November.
The large canvas fetched HK$252.5 million or US$32.5 million -30 per cent less than its last appearance in the auction block in 2015. The 1954 work titled (Yellow and Blue) was one of the most highly-anticipated lots of Sotheby’s first modern and contemporary art evening sale at their new Maison venue in Hong Kong’s Central district. The performance underlined weaker market conditions.
The painting had once belonged to the fugitive Malaysian financier Jho Low and was sold privately to him in 2013 before he auctioned it in 2015; The work, pre-sold through an irrevocable bid, fetched a hammer price of HK$225 million. Art adviser Patti Wong is bidding on behalf of a client at the lower end of presale estimates at Sotheby’s latest auction.
This painting was a landmark, becoming the first significant work of the artist to be put under the hammer in Asia, and it did fall short of its price when it sold back in 2015 in New York to billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov for US$46.5 million, including fees. The modest total was representative of a cooling in the global art market more broadly, which has weighed on Sotheby’s and its rivals this sale season in significant hubs. Christie’s recently opened its own Hong Kong space at The Henderson and fared better last month, reaching HK$1 billion on a high sell-through rate of 93%.
Sotheby’s evening sale in Hong Kong-its first in its giant 24,000-square-foot space at Landmark Chater-was up and down: of the 35 lots consigned, seven were withdrawn, including Zao Wou-Ki’s 02.01.65, which presale estimates pegged at HK$80 million to HK$120 million-a reflection of tentative sentiment among collectors-and five failed to find buyers. Other significant sales, such as George Condo’s Red, White and Black (2014), sold below estimate, which went for HK$17 million under a guarantee but failed to reach an expected range of HK$25 million to HK$35 million.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s chairman of modern and contemporary art for Europe, acknowledged the subdued result, citing in part an overscheduled auction calendar in which rival sales in London, Paris and New York vied for attention. Branczik said Sotheby’s may reconsider its Hong Kong timing in the future.
The total for the auction was HK$409.5 million, 26% below the 2023 total of HK$554 million when separate contemporary and modern evening sales were staged. The company said direct comparisons were tricky because of format changes, but the results underlined challenges for the Hong Kong art market as it adjusts to a year-round sales model that stretches across a range of sites rather than the blockbuster biannual auctions that once dominated the region’s art calendar.
This slowdown has been more pronounced in the global art market, with the recent Sotheby’s London contemporary sale in October falling by 20% year-on-year. With economic uncertainties abiding, Hong Kong’s leading auction houses are preparing for a recalibration that might reshape their strategy in pursuit of established collectors and new buyers alike in an increasingly cautious landscape.
Top Photo: Courtesy Sotheby’s