Painting by Vietnamese artist sold for over 2 million USD, leading auction in Hong Kong

Nguyen Gia Tri's paintings on Christie's website. (Screenshot)

Artist Nguyen Gia Tri's painting just went under the hammer for about $2.07 million at the auction "A Quest for Eternity: The Philippe Damas Collection," by Christie's Hong Kong (China) auction house, held on March 29.

Specifically, the painting "Le Trois Femmes" (1934), roughly translated as Three Women , was successfully auctioned at 16,105,000 HKD, far exceeding the expected price of 4 - 6 million HKD, leading the auction. HENI News said the painting had been traded twice in the past.

This price puts Nguyen Gia Tri in 4th place out of 10 most expensive Vietnamese paintings, after "Portrait of Miss Phuong" 3.1 million by Mai Trung Thu (2021), "Family in the Garden" 2.37 million USD (2023) and "Shape in the Garden" 2.29 million USD (2022), both by Le Pho.

Journalist and observer Ly Doi commented that this is Nguyen Gia Tri's highest public sale price. In fact, there have been underground transactions with fakes of this painting, the price of the hand-to-hand transaction could be higher.

“If this painting had been put on the market before the COVID-19 pandemic, when the economy was still good, it could have sold for $3 million. The estimated and starting price this time is just to attract customers, but with a painting like this, a price of over $10 million HKD [about $1.2 million] is natural,” this observer commented.

“Le Trois Femmes” is an oil painting, a rare material for Nguyen Gia Tri, who is famous for his lacquer painting genre. According to Mr. Ly Doi, this may be the result of his early studies of oil painting at the Indochina Fine Arts School, influenced by the color palette and form of his French teacher - painter Joseph Inguimberty. In addition, the painting has a high level of completion, is well preserved, and has a clear origin, which makes it even more valuable.

“A Quest for Eternity: The Philippe Damas Collection” is an auction of the collection of Philippe Damas, a businessman in the financial industry who spent many years working in Asia, collecting many outstanding works of art there, including many big names in Vietnam.

Some outstanding works from authors inside and outside Vietnam. (Screenshot)

According to HENI News statistics, 40 works were successfully hammered at the auction on March 29. The total value is about 60.5 million HKD, equivalent to 7.78 million USD.

Notable works include “Marché au Tonkin” by Jos Henri Ponchin sold for 3.5 million HKD (estimated at 240,000-350,000 HKD), “Le retour de marché” by Joseph Inguimberty sold for 12.5 million HKD (estimated at 1.2-2.2 million HKD), Victor Tardieu, Georges Barriere...

As for works from Vietnam, in addition to Nguyen Gia Tri, there are also paintings by Nguyen Sang (Family), To Ngoc Van (Deux femmes), Tran Phuc Duyen (La prière - The Praying Man), Luu Van Sin (Bonzesse - Buddhist Nun), Vu Cao Dam, Le Pho...

Nguyen Gia Tri (1908-1993) is one of the most prominent painters in the history of Vietnamese fine arts. He is often mentioned first in the Tri-Van-Lan-Can quartet (Nguyen Gia Tri, To Ngoc Van, Nguyen Tuong Lan and Tran Van Can), who was commissioned by many politicians and sophisticated collectors to paint, with endless work.

Evaluating the paintings of famous Vietnamese artists on international markets, Mr. Ly Doi predicted that from now until 2030, there will be Vietnamese paintings that exceed 5 million USD. Currently, the record price of Vietnamese paintings is "Portrait of Miss Phuong" by famous artist Mai Trung Thu, 3.1 million USD (2021).

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/tranh-cua-hoa-sy-viet-duoc-ban-voi-gia-hon-2-trieu-usd-dan-dau-phien-dau-gia-o-hong-kong-post1023613.vnp