Christie's will open New York's November marquee auctions on Nov. 17 with Wassily Kandinsky's 1922-23 painting Betonte Ecken, estimated at $60 million to $80 million, and the house says a guarantor has already committed to a bid above the artist's auction record of 37.2 million pounds ($44.55 million), CNN reported.

For collectors and dealers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Jakarta, the two weeks of evening sales that follow are a test of how much the top of the art market now depends on Asian money. A year ago, Asia-Pacific buyers took 19% of Christie's New York week by its own count, and Sotheby's said bidders from the region competed across its billion-dollar run of sales.

Kandinsky leads Christie's evening sales

Betonte Ecken has an unusual history. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation sold it in 1964 as part of a batch of 50 Kandinsky works it put up for sale for lack of space, according to CNN. The painting fetched 22,000 pounds, about $62,000 at the time, from a New York dealer. The whole group raised 536,580 pounds in London.

ARTnews reported on Nov. 4 that the painting was consigned by the Nahmad family, the art-dealing dynasty. It is the cover lot of Christie's 20th Century Evening Sale, which has 79 lots. Of those, 40 carry a named consignor, the magazine counted, as do 35 of the 58 lots in the 21st Century Evening Sale.

Other lots in the 20th Century sale include an untitled 1968 Mark Rothko on paper estimated at $10 million to $15 million, and two Surrealist works that ARTnews tied to Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Clarissa Bronfman: a Wifredo Lam at $10 million to $15 million and a Roberto Matta at $5 million to $7 million. Christie's and Sotheby's told the magazine they do not comment on who consigns works.

Max Carter, Christie's global chairman of 20th and 21st century art, told CNN the Guggenheim "had such an embarrassment of riches back then."

Sotheby's bets on named collections, with a Jakarta link

At Sotheby's, 22 of the 53 lots in The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction and 13 of the 50 lots in the Modern Evening Auction have named consignors, according to ARTnews. A further 11 Modern lots come from a group labeled "Shaping Modernity," which a source told the magazine belongs to George Weiss, the hedge fund founder now in bankruptcy. Highlights include a 1972 Francis Bacon self-portrait estimated at $10 million to $15 million and Paul Signac's Collioure. Les Balancelles at $12 million to $18 million.

One lot has a direct Southeast Asian connection. Keith Haring's portrait of Grace Jones, estimated at $3.5 million to $5 million, was last exhibited at Museum MACAN in Jakarta in 2021 and 2022, and the museum's 2021 exhibition guide listed it as part of its collection, ARTnews reported. The magazine noted that most of the private museum's holdings come from its founder, Haryanto Adikoesoemo, and said the identity of the actual seller is unclear.

The season follows a strong run for the big houses. Sales at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips topped $2.5 billion in May, roughly double the $1.3 billion of May 2025, ARTnews said. The high point of last November was Sotheby's sale of Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer for $236.4 million.

What Asian buyers did last November

Christie's New York week in November 2025 totaled $964.5 million, its highest in three years, with 90% of lots sold and 96% by value, according to the house's results as published by Artdaily. Buyers from the Americas accounted for 58% of the total, Europe, the Middle East and Africa for 23%, and Asia-Pacific for 19%.

At Sotheby's, an Asia-based collector bought Jean-Michel Basquiat's Crowns (Peso Neto) for $48.3 million, above its $35 million to $45 million estimate, and Asian clients acquired works by Henri Matisse, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico across several sales, the auction house said in results published by Artdaily. Evelyn Lin, chairman of modern and contemporary art at Sotheby's Asia, said collectors in Asia "have long been key participants in the art market."

That demand has carried over to Hong Kong this autumn, where Christie's Ai Lian Tang sale of imperial Chinese art sold 29 of 30 lots in late October. Whether the same buyers chase Western blue-chip paintings in New York will show in the buyer-region breakdowns the houses publish after the sales. The first figure to watch is whether Betonte Ecken clears its guaranteed floor on the evening of Nov. 17.