On Sunday, with ART SG and Singapore Art Week wrapping up, Sotheby’s held its annual modern and contemporary art sale in the city. The results, the house reported on Tuesday, were the highest total for the sale since 2023, achieving $13.1 million across 62 lots.
The sale had a 94 percent sell-through rate, with bidders Southeast Asia, the US, the UAE, Europe, South Korea, Japan, India, and China.
In a sale filled out with a mix of established Western and Asian artists, the top result went to Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres’s Weavers (1953), which sold for approximately $1.2 million with fees. The other seven-figure result was for Takashi Murakami’s Blue Signals (2017), which sold for around $1.06 million.
Sotheby’s reported new artist records for Pacita Abad, whose 1984 painting Assaulting the eye with Ecstasy sold for $389,400. It more than quadrupled its low estimate, with five bidders competing for the work. Singaporean artist Anthony Poon also achieved a new record, with his 1986 work Colour Waves selling for $129,800, more than double its low estimate.
“We saw the fierce determination from our collectors as they rallied behind regional talents, from Chen Wen Hsi to Anthony Poon and Pacita Abad,” Jasmine Prasetio, Sotheby’s managing director in Southeast Asia, said in a statement. “At the same time, the growing interest in international blue-chip artists is clear, as we saw multiple bids for the likes of David Hockney and Marc Chagall, reflecting the rich diversity of tastes and demographics within Singapore’s vibrant community.”
