$5.8 million Yoshitomo Nara painting leads Phillips Hong Kong’s modern and contemporary sale.
Portrait of auctioneer Jonathan Crockett selling Yoshitomo Nara’s Baby Blue (1999) at Phillip’s modern and contemporary sale in Hong Kong, 2024. Courtesy of Phillips.
Yoshitomo Nara’s Baby Blue (1999) sold for HK$45 Million (US$5.8 Million) at Phillips’s modern and contemporary art evening sale in Hong Kong on November 25th. The painting was the top lot of the sale, which totaled HK$171.14 million (US$21.99 million). (All prices include fees.)
The Nara painting features the artist’s signature “Nara girl,” a cherub-faced figure with large, expressive eyes, against a pastel green backdrop. This work was originally presented at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York during the artist’s first solo show in the city in 1999. Praised by New York Times critic Roberta Smith at the time, the work dates to a period when Nara created some of his most sought-after pieces. Notably, his current auction record, Knife Behind Back (2000), painted around this time, sold for $25 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2019.
Li Hei Di, Orange Swim, 2024. Courtesy of Phillips.
Meanwhile, a new auction record was set for rising artist Li Hei Di—who was featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2023–24 —when Orange Swim (2021) sold for HK$1.2 million (US$155,035), more than four times its pre-sale estimate. The Chinese artist’s previous auction record was just days before at Phillips in New York.
Li’s two record-breaking sales come shortly after Pace Gallery announced its co-representation of the 27-year-old artist with Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in September. Earlier this month, the artist made their auction debut at Cuppar Auction House in Beijing, where a work sold for CNY 667,000 ($92,341).
Moka Lee, I’m Not Like Me, 2020. Courtesy of Phillips.
Another emerging artist to watch at Phillips, Korean painter Moka Lee—who is featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2025—made a noteworthy auction debut with I’m Not Like Me (2020). The painting sold for HK$1.65 million (US$211,328), quadrupling its presale estimate of HK$400,000–HK$600,000 (US$51,300–US$76,900).
Following Nara’s Baby Blue, the top lots of the night were:
- Sanyu’s Reclining Nude, with Raised Knee II (ca. 1950–60s) sold for HK$42.8 million (US$5.49 million).
- Nicolas Party’s Mountains (2023) sold for HK$13.76 million (US$1.76 million).
- Pierre Soulages’s Peinture 202 x 143 cm, 25 septembre 1967 (1967) sold for HK$11.09 million (US$1.42 million).
- Nara’s Fountain of Life (2001/2014) sold for HK$10.13 million (US$1.3 million).
- Liu Ye’s Mondrian, Hello (2002) sold for HK$7.36 million (US$946,531).
