HONG KONG — Conversation d'élégantes au jardin (Conversation of Elegant Ladies in the Garden) by renowned Vietnamese artist Vũ Cao Đàm fetched HK$28.96 million (about US$3.69 million) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, setting a new auction record for a Vietnamese artwork.

The painting of a graceful gathering of five women in a garden has become a landmark for Vietnamese art on the international market.

The work had been estimated to fetch between HK$8 million and 19.6 million.

The result more than surpassed the previous record set by Mai Trung Thứ’s Portrait of Mademoiselle Phương, which sold for HK$24.4 million (US$3.1 million) at Sotheby’s in 2021.

A garden of memory

Painted in 1939 in ink and gouache on silk, Conversation d'élégantes au jardin measures 85.6cm by 114.5cm, making it unusually large for a silk painting. Sotheby’s described it as the artist’s largest multi-figure work in the medium and highlighted its ability to bridge Eastern artistic traditions and Western modernism.

The scene is serene. Five women sit together in a lush garden, their colourful áo dài-like garments creating a gentle rhythm across the silk. Yet the painting does not feel crowded. Each figure has a distinct pose and direction of gaze, while the composition remains remarkably balanced.

The restraint is part of its charm. The faces are lightly defined, with no attempt to emphasise individual features. None of the women looks directly at the viewer.

The effect is intimate, almost as if the viewer has accidentally entered a private moment.

Michel Vu, the artist’s son, described the work as one of the high points of his father’s career, seeing in it an idealised vision reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and a symbolic expression of happiness through an Eastern lens.

Sotheby’s similarly noted the work’s lyrical colour and the artist’s ability to transform an ancient Asian medium into a vehicle for a modern vision of Vietnamese identity.

The technical achievement is equally striking.

Unlike oil on canvas, silk allows little room for correction. Colour sinks quickly into the fabric, while thin layers and a sensitive surface make the handling of tone, transparency and balance particularly demanding. On a large surface populated by five figures, the challenge is not simply to draw well but to control the entire visual rhythm of the composition.

Vũ Cao Đàm achieves this with apparent ease. A red-clad figure on the left provides the first strong accent, balanced by an area of blue. The central woman connects the composition, while a woman in yellow in the foreground becomes its brightest point. A pale-blue figure in the background gives the garden a further sense of depth.

It is a sophisticated visual language that says much without appearing to try too hard.

When art becomes cultural capital

The record comes amid a broader showing by Vietnamese artists at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Trần Lưu Hậu’s Park, estimated at HK$600,000–1.2 million (US$76,500–153,000), sold for HK$2.816 million (about US$359,000), more than twice its high estimate.

Lê Phổ also posted strong results, with La Fleuriste fetching HK$1.92 million (about US$245,000) and Vase avec tournesols reaching HK$2.304 million (US$294,000). Trần Bình Lộc’s Angkor Wat Temple sold for HK$1.92 million (US$245,000).

The results suggest that the appeal of Vietnamese modern art extends beyond a handful of famous names. Works with strong artistic quality, distinctive subjects and recognisable individual styles continue to attract international collectors.

For Việt Nam, such moments also resonate with a broader understanding of culture as an asset with both artistic and economic value.

The Politburo’s Resolution No. 80-NQ/TW on cultural development, issued in January 2026, places culture and people among the foundations and important endogenous resources for sustainable national development. It also calls for stronger cultural industries and international cultural integration, linking creativity and cultural identity with wider development.

The international art market offers a vivid example of how that thinking can take shape. A painting does not merely preserve an aesthetic tradition; it can carry a distinctive cultural language across borders, connect Vietnamese artistic heritage with contemporary audiences and generate economic value at the same time.

Vũ Cao Đàm’s record-setting work is particularly telling in this regard. Created in France in 1939, far from the landscape of his homeland, it brought together an Asian material, Vietnamese sensibility and European artistic experience. S

otheby’s has noted that Vũ Cao Đàm was part of the generation of Vietnamese artists whose careers developed between Việt Nam and France, helping shape modern Vietnamese art through this cross-cultural encounter.

Nearly nine decades after it was painted, Conversation d'élégantes au jardin has found a new audience — and a remarkable new value.

The HK$28.96 million price tag is striking in itself. But perhaps more significant is what lies behind it: the continuing ability of Vietnamese art to turn memory, identity and artistic craftsmanship into a language understood — and valued — far beyond its place of origin. — VNS