The three evening sales totaled $184.9M aggregate across the houses, up 36% from 2025 results. Last September three trophy lots carried the week in Hong Kong. This year, sales moved into the lower $5M-10M band, which grew elevenfold. Christie's sold every lot, Sotheby's doubled its value, and Phillips shrank by two-thirds.
The Hong Kong various-owner evening sales offered 118 lots to the market this year, an increase of 20% compared to last year’s 98 lots. The combined low estimate rose to $128.0M from $100.6M. Christie's and Sotheby's both offered more lots this year, while Phillips offered fewer. Only Sotheby's increased its average lot value; Christie's average value fell without last year's Picasso, and the Phillips average fell by more than half.
Last year, Picasso's Buste de femme made $25.3M at Christie's. Together with Zao Wou-Ki's 17.3.63 in the same sale ($10.9M) and Nara's Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes at Sotheby's ($10.3M), three lots over $10M accounted for a third of the season. This year nothing cleared the $10M mark. Instead, eleven lots landed in the lower $5M-$10M price band, worth a total of $80.2M aggregate, against a single lot in that band a year ago. Nine of those eleven came to the room with pre-sale guarantees, irrevocable bids, or both.
Overall pricing improved. A larger share of lots surpassed their high estimates and fewer fell short. Yet bought-in lots increased from five to seven, and withdrawals included a Rothko at Sotheby’s estimated at $9.9M-16.3M. The auction houses brought more to market, and the room absorbed most but not all of it. The $100K-$1M price band shrank by 28%, which reflects where houses assigned their lots even more so than demand with more of the middle market allocated to day sales.
The Picasso value decrease from $32.3M to $7.4M is simply the absence of last year's trophy lot. Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki’s value increased 62% to $26.2M across six lots. Yoshitomo Nara's evening total decreased 13%, but he still had the top lot at Sotheby's, second only to Basquiat for the week.
Yayoi Kusama died on August 14th 2026, and the September sales were the secondary market's first major opportunity to price her work since. Her evening sale total more than doubled, from $8.3M in 2025 to $19.5M in 2026, with four lots offered each season. The increase in sold value came from what was offered rather than from bidders paying more for comparable works. This year's sales carried two large-format pumpkin canvases, Christie's A-Pumpkin (YHP) at $7.4M and Sotheby's Pumpkin (TWPOT) at $7.7M. Last year the largest Kusama was a smaller pumpkin work, which sold at $4.5M aggregate.
Lots with guarantees or irrevocable bids carried more of the market this year. At Christie's and Sotheby's combined, the value of backed lots rose 42%, from $74.3M in 2025 to $105.6M in 2026. Nine of the eleven lots in the $5M-$10M price band came to the room pre-sold.
At Christie's, backed lots sold for an average 1.6x their low estimate, against 1.7x for unbacked lots, a modest gap consistent with irrevocable bids setting a floor near the low end. At Sotheby's the two were nearly level, at 1.9x for backed lots and 1.8x for unbacked lots, with pre-sale financed lots lifted by the Renoir, Monet and Chagall. The Phillips 100% sell-through sale in 2025 rested heavily on pre-sale financing, with six backed lots carrying 84% of the value, while this year's evening sale included none.
The season's growth was not driven entirely by pre-sale financing alone. At Christie's and Sotheby's combined, the value of unbacked lots rose 75%, from $41.6M in 2025 to $72.6M in 2026. The gain was sharpest at Sotheby's, where unbacked value more than doubled, from $13.8M to $29.2M.
The Christie's evening sale grew 27% to $92.6M in aggregate sales. The 2026 sale landed a white-glove result with 100% sell-through rate, against 92% in 2025. The average sold lot value decreased from $2.08M in 2025 to $1.85M in 2026 without last year's Picasso, but the number of million-dollar lots more than doubled, from 13 to 27.
In 2025 Picasso's Buste de femme accounted for 35% of the sale; this year Basquiat's Ancient Scientist led with just 11%. Western modern and historical pictures continued to outperform: Cézanne's Fillette made 2.4x its low estimate in 2025, and this year Cézanne, Matisse, Dalí and a Rubens landscape all beat their high estimates, the Rubens at 3.2x its low.
Sotheby's nearly doubled its aggregate sale value, landing at $85.6M, the biggest gain of the week. Seven lots sold within the $5M-$10M price band, totaling $50.3M, a band that was empty last year. The average sold lot value rose 64%, from $1.14M in 2025 to $1.86M in 2026, though bought-in lots tripled from two to six.
Nara led the sale both years: Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes sold at $10.3M in 2025 and Present at $9.1M this year. The Western offering swapped Pop Art for more Impressionism. Last year's sale leaned on five Lichtensteins; this year Renoir, Monet and Chagall all surpassed their high estimates, at 2.3-3.4x their lows.
The Phillips total fell 67%, from $20.6M in 2025 to $6.7M this year, on fewer lots at a much lower average value: $447K against $1.03M. Last year Phillips had a Japanese-led sale, including works by Nara and Kusama. This year there were no Nara or Kusama offerings, and the Western offering narrowed to one major lot, Richter's Abstraktes Bild (522-1), which sold at $2.9M, against last year's broader mix including Wesselmann, Warhol, Picasso, and Hockney.
The Lewis Collection: From London to Hong Kong
In June, Joe Lewis's collection set a European record at Sotheby's London. Three months later, fifteen of his Foujitas sold in Hong Kong. The two sales show what a single-owner name does to price, and how that effect can grow as the price point falls.
Part one in London of Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection sold 24 of 25 lots for $390.0M aggregate, led by Modigliani's Nu assis au collier at $63.5M. 17 of the 24 lots offered with public estimates sold above their highs, none sold below low, and the only buy-in was a Degas pastel. Lots over $10M provided 81% of the value. Sotheby's said Asian collectors bid on half the lots and bought more than a third of the works. The London sale was already, in part, an Asian sale.
In Hong Kong, The Foujita Lexicon, Sotheby's first single-artist auction in Asia, sold all 15 lots for $8.6M aggregate. Fourteen of the fifteen lots offered sold above their high estimates. The single-owner premium nearly doubled: the London sale made 1.7x its combined low estimate, while Hong Kong made 4.1x.
At an average lot value of $571K, against $16.2M in London, far more bidders could compete. Works on paper and silk averaged 4.6x their low estimates, against 3x for the canvases. The top lot, Le rêve (Hommage à La Fontaine), sold for $3.4M, 6.6x its low estimate, and the 1933 drawing Madeleine Endormie made $555K, 14.5x its pre-sale low estimate.
Next on the Hong Kong Calendar
The Hong Kong auctions continue this week. China Guardian holds its autumn auctions from October 3rd-8th, and Poly Auction Hong Kong's Modern and Contemporary sale runs on October 5. Those results will show whether mainland-led houses see the same shift away from trophy lots and toward depth.
Results are drawn from Artsignal's Market Explorer as of October 2, 2026. The Sotheby's statement on Asian bidding in London comes from auction house press reports. All prices are aggregate (hammer price plus buyer's premium) unless otherwise noted. Prices are shown in USD, converted from Hong Kong dollars or pounds sterling at the currency conversion rate from each sale date. Season totals cover the three various-owner evening sales at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in Hong Kong. They exclude day sales and The Foujita Lexicon, which is analyzed separately.