Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 work 'Native Carrying Some Guns, Bibles, Amorites on Safari' sold for $12.6 million this week at the Phillips Modern and Contemporary Art in Hong Kong.
The evening sale makes the painting the most expensive piece in Hong Kong this season.
This sale comes after the $46.5 million auction of another 1982 Basquiat work, 'Untitled' (ELMAR), during Phillips' evening sale of modern and contemporary art in New York earlier this month. That piece of art was the most expensive lot to be sold at the New York auctions.
Meiling Lee, Phillips's head of modern and contemporary art in Asia, said in a press release that these outstanding results confirm their unwavering dedication to Basquiat's legacy and truly showed all they are capable.
Phillips was also the only auction house to consign a Banksy piece. The 'Leopard and Lamb,' Banksy's work, sold at Phillips Hong Kong on Friday, May 31 for HK$36.8 million, or $4.7 million, estimated at HK$18 million to $28 million.
According to Phillips, its spring collection of modern and contemporary art in Hong Kong was 22% higher than the previous season's sales. Six top 10 lots included Zao Wou-Ki, Yoshitomo Nara, Yayoi Kusama, and Andy Warhol pieces.
Furthermore, Phillips reported that the Hong Kong auction brought in a total of $26.8 million, with a 96 percent sell-through rate. This represents a 10% increase from the previous season.
Other exceptional sales included Yayoi Kusama's 'INFINITY NETS' (ZGHEB) from 2007, which sold for $3.3 million, Banksy's 'Leopard and Lamb' (2016), which came in at $4.7 million, and another Kusama piece, 'Pumpkin' (2000), which brought in $1.7 million.
