Hong Kong's autumn auction season is in full swing, and Poly Auction Hong Kong has opened the preview of its Autumn Auctions 2026 at Six Pacific Place. The free-to-view exhibition runs 2–4 October, with the sales themselves taking place 5–7 October — a tight, packed week for anyone interested in art, antiques, jewellery or watches.
The sale is organised into four categories: Modern and Contemporary Art, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy, and Jewels & Watches. The headline lots make an unusually varied lineup. Zao Wou-Ki's 01.06.65, painted in 1965 at the peak of his abstract period, carries a dedication on the reverse to French art historian André Chastel and his wife — evidence of the painter's place in Parisian intellectual life. On the Chinese side, Qiu Ying's Autumn Ride on the Plains once belonged to the Qing imperial collection, a serious provenance for classical painting collectors.
Contemporary Chinese art is well represented too. Wu Guanzhong's Old Riverside Trees (1977) captures the artist mid-shift from figuration to his signature dots, lines and planes, while Liu Wei's monumental Landscape and Yue Minjun's Big Ear (1992) trace the arc of 1990s Cynical Realism — Yue's early, raw version of the closed-eyed grin that became his trademark. There's a Western accent as well: David Hockney's The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire (30 April 2011), an iPad drawing printed in an edition of 25, appears at auction in Asia for the first time. Hockney died earlier this year, which adds extra weight to the lot.
The ceramics section leans imperial. Star of the Wang Xing Lou Collection Part Two is a Yongzheng-period red-glazed bottle vase decorated in gold with the 'Three Friends of Winter' — pine, bamboo and plum — complete with the six-character mark of the period. Other dedicated sales include material from The Tsui Museum of Art and a new standalone section, Echoes of Eternity: Chinese Art through the Ages. Over in Jewels & Watches, a Burmese 'pigeon's blood' ruby and diamond necklace and a limited-edition Royal Oak Concept Black Panther Flying Tourbillon titanium watch (circa 2021) anchor the category. A 13th-century gilt-copper figure of Manjushri from Nepal's Khasa Malla kingdom bridges the antiquities and Himalayan art crowd.
Why should a traveller care? Because previews like this are essentially free, world-class exhibitions. You don't need a paddle or an invitation to walk through Six Pacific Place and see a Zao Wou-Ki, a Qing imperial vase and a Hockney digital print under one roof — something most museums would charge for and stagger across separate wings. If you're in Hong Kong in early October, the preview days are the move; by the time the auctions start on the 5th, the galleries are largely for bidders. It's also a convenient excuse to explore Admiralty, with the Asia Society's Hong Kong Centre and the Hong Kong Park galleries a short walk away.
Reported by Laotian Times.
