Sotheby's Hong Kong Spring Sales 2009

Contemporary Asian Art, 2:00pm, 6 April 2009
Hall 3 (New Wing),

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

This is the first time I attend an auction.

Besides people are welcome to attend the auction, Sotheby allows written and telephone bids. During the process, the auctioneer opens the bidding on the lot and further bid on behalf of the seller up to the amount of the reserve. For the artwork(s) of the renowned artists, the bidding is rather exciting. Some of them are even sold much more than the ask price. In most cases, the lots will be passed when the bids are below their reserve price, but some can still be sold at a low price, to my surprise.

It is understandable that those works from prominent artists or departed artists are always set at a high price. How do people define a value and a price for an artwork? Is it about art on demand? People’s preferences on artworks are various. There may be some artworks that you do not like, but the bidders are willing to pay a lot for them.

"Numbers" fill up this commercial art event as well as the art world, when art, never as simple as an expression / a communication medium that I believe, is transformed into a commodity.