CHRISTIE’S HONG KONG SALES; FISHER’S PRESIDIO MUSEUM FACES PROTESTS

Christie’s International quadrupled its top sales target at a Hong Kong auction today and set a record for Chinese contemporary art, writes Bloomberg’s Linda Sandler. The world’s largest auction house took in HK$842 million ($108.3 million) on the first day of a five-day sale marathon, compared with a top estimate of HK$195.8 million ($25 million), according to a draft release. A set of fourteen abstract images by Cai Guo-qiang sold for HK$74.2 million ($9.5 million), making him the auction world’s most expensive Chinese contemporary artist.

A group of historians and conservationists is challenging Gap founder Donald Fisher’s plan to build a hundred-thousand-square-foot modern art museum at the center of the Presidio, reports John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle. Leaders of the Presidio Historical Association want to put a smaller history center at the hub of the military post–turned–national park, arguing that a salute to the base’s role in the country’s history is a better fit for the area than the art museum. Fisher and his wife, however, have already promised to pay the hefty cost of the proposed Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio, which would house their world-class art collection. Representatives of the historical association complain that Fisher’s proposal already has the inside track. Fisher, one of the original directors of the Presidio Trust, has been talking for a year with officials of the trust about building the museum on the former base.