Lehman's Doom Spooks Hong Kong Art Sale; Two Thirds Goes Unsold

By Le-Min Lim

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Gloom prevailed at the second day of Asia's biggest art auction in Hong Kong since the U.S. credit crisis began with about two-thirds of the Chinese paintings and sculptures offered, many by masters, unsold.

Sotheby's sale of 20th-century Chinese art fetched HK$35 million ($4.5 million) with 35.4 percent of the 110 lots sold, according to the New York-based company. The priciest piece sold this morning was Zao Wou-Ki's abstract 1.95 meter-by-1.3 meter ``7 Aout 2000,'' signed by the China-born, Paris-based artist.

The results reinforced the outcome of yesterday's sale, Sotheby's first evening auction of Asian paintings in the region, when 40 percent of the lots went unsold. Sotheby's five-day Hong Kong auction of 1,700 lots gives a first glimpse of Asian art buyers' reaction to the global financial-market rout triggered by the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

``It was a volatile auction,'' said Scott Chanatry, a New York-based art collector and fund manager who flew in to attend the sale. ``Macroeconomic forces were definitely at work.''

Two-thirds of the auction room filled, as bouts of torrential rain poured down outside from heavy gray clouds.

Sotheby's sale continues this afternoon with the sale of contemporary-Chinese art.

Sotheby's charges sellers a flat fee of HK$6,000 for items that go under the hammer for less than HK$40,000, and 10 percent for any amount at or above HK$40,000. Buyers' commission is 25 percent of the hammer price for the first HK$400,000, 20 percent for the amount above HK$400,000 and up to HK$8 million, and 12 percent for that above HK$8 million.

Auction prices include commission.

To contact the writer on the story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net