Ronald Ventura’s 2017 painting sells for HK$19.4 million or over P120 million

Renowned Filipino artist Ronald Ventura has sold his 2017 acrylic and oil artwork “Party Animals” for a whopping HK$19,450,000  or approximately P120,583,592.

British auction house Christie’s held the bidding, which lasted just a little over five minutes, and exceeded its estimated price tag of HK$800,000 to HK$1.2 million. Per the artwork’s page in Christie’s, “Party Animals” was first introduced in 2017 through a private collection and was then exhibited at New York’s Tyler Rollins Fine Art gallery.

The contemporary artist known for curating chaos through his fanciful paintings is no stranger to the auction scene, as he once set the record for the highest-auctioned Southeast Asian contemporary art piece of all time with 2011's large-scale Grayground made with graphite, oil, and acrylic.

It sold for $1.1 million, or around P52,000,000 now, at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Paintings auction.

Ventura graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting from the University of Santo Tomas. Coincidentally, he also held his first solo exhibit at the same Tyler Rollins gallery back in 2009 and has since been considered one of the most notable (and highest-selling) painters in Southeast Asia.