SINGAPORE – An early work by pioneer Singapore artist Liu Kang has sold for $372,100, beating a pre-sale estimate of between $220,000 and $320,000, at Larasati Singapore’s first in-person auction since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The large oil on canvas painting titled Singapore, Trengganu Street (1951), measuring 97.5cm by 131cm, was bought by a Singaporean. More details of the buyer were not revealed, but Larasati chief executive Daniel Komala, who conducted the auction, says: “We sold the biggest prize of the day to a younger-generation collector.”
He also described Liu as a “blue chip” artist whose works are considered investment grade.
There were 20 lots put up for the auction held at La Galerie at Alliance Francaise on Saturday, with works dating from the 1940s up to 2021.
About 85 per cent – 17 lots – were sold. Prices of sold lots started at $1,000 for a 1947 coloured lithograph of a Balinese woman by Dutch artist Willem Gerard Hofker.
An artwork by Singapore artist Jane Lee titled The Little Red Painting (2009) sold for $36,600, which was higher than Larasati’s pre-sale estimate of between $15,000 and $20,000.
There were several bids received from the auction floor as well as via telephone and Larasati’s live-streamed online auction platform. “It was basically a fight between both younger and older collectors, which I think is very encouraging,” adds Mr Komala.
Another artist whose works exceeded pre-sale estimates was Indonesian Gusti Ayu Kadek Murniasih. There were two works with pre-sale estimates of between $1,800 and $2,800. These sold for $14,640 and $10,980.
Mr Komala says he was not expecting to make any “million-dollar sales” at the latest auction, which was dubbed its 20th Anniversary auction. Larasati Singapore was launched in 2003.
In March 2022, it had sold a painting by pioneer artist Cheong Soo Pieng for $1.06 million.
Instead, he says his “main aim is to get younger collectors into the sales room to look at the artworks”. He estimates that most of the bidders were aged between 38 and 48. He adds that the buyer for Lee’s artwork was a Singaporean under 40 years old.
Other contemporary artists represented in the auction included Indonesian Roby Dwi Antono, Malaysian Chan Kok Hooi and Vietnamese Dang Xuan Hoa.
The highlights of the auction were, however, works by pioneer Singapore artists including Liu, Cheong and Chen Chong Swee.
There were three works by Cheong for sale but only one, a large abstract oil on canvas painting titled Imagination (1967), was sold for $122,000. It had a pre-sale estimate of between $100,000 and $150,000.
Two ink and colour works on paper by Chen sold for $30,500 and $42,700.
Bids at the auction were mainly from collectors in South-east Asia. Total sales for the day – including the auction house premium (or commission) of 22 per cent – was almost $800,000.
