Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

The contemporary Asian art scene has enjoyed explosive success in recent times. The Modern & Contemporary Southeast Asian Art sale offers a diverse visual aesthetic representative of the myriad cultures within the region. A contemporary visual language is rapidly developing, in which artists are constantly exploring and creating their own unique vocabulary across all disciplines.

As the market leader in this field and reflecting growing interest in this collecting category, Christie's has a specialist department solely devoted to Southeast Asian paintings. Sales are held twice a year in Hong Kong and each season Christie's has established top prices for Southeast Asian art. Among the highlights is Radeh Saleh's The Deer Hunt, which sold for S$3,083,750 in March 1996, setting a world auction record for a work by a Southeast Asian artist which still stands today.

This category has achieved extremely encouraging results since our inaugural offering of Southeast Asian Contemporary Art in May 2005. The growth in this area has created considerable excitement amongst collectors and made this a fascinating time to become involved in the Southeast Asian art market. Most recently, Christie's 2007 autumn auction achieved the highest sale total ever achieved in Hong Kong in this category, HK$64,329,000 (US$8,272,709), with 99% sold value.