Christie's had more disappointment following its gloomy New York sales last month when 44 percent of lots failed to sell in the Hong Kong auction of Asian contemporary art this Sunday, and only 54 percent of lots sold in the Chinese 20th century auction, reports Reuters. The slump follows Sotheby's poor showing in Hong Kong in October, where it only achieved half its pre-sale estimate.

The top lot in the Asian contemporary sale was Zhang Xiaogang's Bloodline: Big Family No. 2, from the collection of director Oliver Stone, which sold for HK$26.4 million ($3.4 million), below its pre-sale estimate of around HK$40 million. Two other works consigned by Stone, two paintings by Lui Wei, sold for a combined HK$7.5 million, near the low end of estimates.

Works by China's Zeng Fanzhi, Yue Minjun and Cai Guoqiang, Taiwan's Chen Cheng-Po and India's Subodh Gupta fell short of reserve prices and so failed to sell.

'You could sense the caution; no one wants to make a rash move,' said Tian Kai, a Beijing-based art dealer told Bloomberg. 'It's a sign of the times.'

Work by Zeng Fanzhi and Chen Cheng-Po failed to sell at estimates of HK$28 million and HK$15 million respectively.