Christie's International, the world's biggest art seller, will begin evening auctions in Hong Kong in May, following the success of night sales in New York and London that set benchmarks for the global art market. The top lot in the May 24 sale of about 50 modern and contemporary Asian works is Zeng Fanzhi's "Mask Series 1996 No. 6." The painting, which shows eight figures wearing grinning masks and the telltale red scarf of China's marauding Red Guards, may fetch up to HK$25 million ($3.5 million), Christie's said. The evening auction begins the first of Christie's biannual sales of gems, antiques and artworks in the city for 2008. Until now, Christie's and rival Sotheby's only held day auctions in Hong Kong. In the larger art markets of London and New York, the more glamorous evening sale is seen as the industry's barometer, drawing the pick of the offerings. In Hong Kong, Christie's will also offer Yue Minjun's "Swan," depicting flying swans on one side of the canvas, with the artist's trademark laughing men on the other. The picture may fetch as much as HK$15 million, said Christie's. Zeng's "Mask" painting alludes to the hodgepodge of students and young workers who were mobilized by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976 to harass his political rivals. In November, works by contemporary artists such as Lucian Freud and Jeff Koons broke records at Christie's New York evening auction. At Sotheby's equivalent event that month, Koons became the priciest living artist at auction when his 3,500-pound, pink, stainless-steel "Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)" sold for $23.6 million. A few nights earlier, Sotheby's shares had fallen 28 percent in a day when its Impressionist auction missed targets. Febrile Market The Hong Kong evening sale is Christie's response to a febrile Asian art market that has repeatedly set records the past two years, spurred by Chinese artists such as Zhang Xiaogang and Zeng whose works are seen as monuments of China's economic expansion. A set of 14 pictures by Cai Guoqiang, known for his gunpowder-on-paper works, fetched an artist record of HK$74 million in November at Christie's in Hong Kong. "Hong Kong is a cultural, social and economic hub in the region, and is the choice for international collectors looking for the best works in Asian contemporary and Chinese 20th century art," said Eric Chang, a Christie's director, in a statement. Works by veteran, foreign-trained Chinese artists like Zao Wou-ki's abstract renditions of landscapes, are also fetching rising prices at auction. Paintings by dead masters like Xu Beihong command the top prices. In November, Ming-dynasty painter Qiu Ying's "Red Cliff," a Chinese ink picture, fetched 79.5 million yuan ($11 million) in Beijing at a China Guardian Auction Co. sale, a record auction price for an Asian painting. More and More "Results from every art auction in Hong Kong prove you can get more and more from this market," said Shirley Ben Bashat, general manager of the Opera Gallery in Hong Kong. "No surprise Christie's would start another sale if they have enough to show." The record for a single Chinese contemporary painting was set in London in October when Yue's "Execution," which adapts a 19th century Manet classic to reflect the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown on student protesters, sold for 2.9 million pounds ($5.7 million). Prices of Asian artworks may rise faster at the coming auctions as a weakening Hong Kong dollar spurs bargain-hunting and a volatile global stock market prompts some buyers to seek havens in alternative assets, said Ben Bashat, 29. The Hong Kong dollar, pegged to the U.S. dollar, has dropped 6 percent against the euro, and 10 percent against the yen in the past six months. "At this rate, the art market could boom for another year or so," said Ben Bashat. London-based Christie's, owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault, said sales in Hong Kong, its main Asian outpost, rose 23 percent last year.