A Damien Hirst Fender Stratocaster, bottles of Romanee-Conti Domaine de la Romanee-Conti

A Damien Hirst Fender Stratocaster, bottles of Romanee-Conti Domaine de la Romanee-Conti 2005 and a vintage Leica camera are leading lots in an eight-day marathon in Hong Kong by six auction houses.

International auction houses Christie’s International and Bonhams are joined by Beijing Poly International Auction Co., Ravenel International Art Group, Seoul Auction, Tiancheng Auction and United Asian Auctioneers in a series of sales through Nov. 28.

“It’s nice to be in a market with lots of crossover,” said James Hennessey, a Hong Kong-based dealer who spent HK$1.4 million ($180,000) yesterday buying a Wang Keping sculpture a Cai Guo-Qiang oil-and-gunpowder landscape on paper and a stone- pigment-on-paper work by Japanese artist Ryozo Kato.

Even given the number of competing sales, strong bidding pushed some prices to record levels. On Nov. 23, Bonhams set a per-carat record for a Sri Lankan sapphire with the sale of a 43 carat sapphire and diamond ring for HK$12 million ($1.55 million).

On the same day, it also set a record with the HK$7.5 million ($970,000) sale of a Leica Lexus I camera circa 1930 with faux lizard skin body, more than four times its high estimate.

Source Bloomberg