Lee Man Fong's work reached $4.4 mln at auction

Sotheby’s HK sale of Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings commanded a strong $15.5 million, more than doubling the $5.8 million and proving the new strength of this category. The sale set a record as the highest auction total for the category, as well as the higher auction record for a Southeast Asian artist.
Fortune and Longevity by Indonesian modern master Lee Man Fong sold for $4.4 million.after 27 furious bids to a phone bidder. (The previous auction record for Southeast Asian Paintings was also held by Lee Man Fong and was achieved when Bali Life sold for $3.2 million in April 2010.)

Fortune and Longevity is a large-scale masterpiece which is unique within the artist’s corpus in its scale, rarity, significance, and creative and technical brilliance. Ten bidders pursued the work, driving the final price to almost tripling the pre-sale expectation!

The sale offered fine examples of the leading artists of the Nanyang School and received strong support from Singaporean buyers, according to Sotheby's.

There were significant buying interests for the Southeast Asian category from established markets such as Indonesia, The Philippines and Singapore, and also from new markets in the Greater China Region, with increased participation from Taiwanese collectors.