One of Claude Monet‘s famous water lily paintings is slated to lead Christie’s first evening sale of 20th- and 21st-century art at its new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong on September 26.
The work is expected to fetch between HK$200 million and HK$280 million ($25 million and $35 million), and if it sells for within that sum, it will become one of the most valuable Western artworks ever to hit the block in the region.
The piece, titled Nymphéas (1897–99), shows the water lily pond at the artist’s home in Giverny, France. According to Christie’s, the painting is among the first devoted to that subject that Monet painted. After his death in 1926, the work stayed in his family for a number of years. It then ended up in a private collection before being consigned to Christie’s.
Zao Wou-ki’s abstract work 05.06.80–Triptyque (1980), which comes with an estimate of HK$78 million to HK$128 million ($10 million to $15 million), will be on the block alongside the Monet.
While Christie’s will debut in the Henderson, a building designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, Sotheby’s and Bonhams will also open new Asia headquarters of their own in Hong Kong later this year. Phillips already expanded to the region establishing an Asia location in West Kowloon in Hong Kong.
As the Western market faces a slowdown, however, it remains to be seen how the Asian market will fare.
