Singapore and Indonesia’s art markets are roaring back to life. What does that mean for Hong Kong?

August saw collectors flock to Sotheby’s first live sale in Singapore in 15 years, while Indonesia’s Art Jakarta fair returned after a two-year hiatus

The inaugural edition of the Art SG fair in January 2023 is seen by many as a barometer to gauge whether Singapore can actually transform into a global art hub

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“Crazy Rich Asians” star Fiona Xie with Zao Wou-ki’s “Sans titre, entre août et décembre 1958” (1958) at Sotheby’s auction in Singapore on August 28. Photo: Sotheby’s

Payal Uttam

Published: 7:15am, 8 Sep 2022Updated: 12:17pm, 6 Oct 2022

Corrected [12:15pm, 6 Oct, 2022]

[12:15pm, 6 Oct, 2022]
The story misquotes Shuyin Yang, director of Art SG, as saying: “Singapore has the potential to become a global art capital, but we never want to overestimate the work that we’re going to have to put in.” Yang said "underestimate", not "overestimate".

While Hong Kong still remains relatively closed off to visitors due to the city’s stringent quarantine measures, other Asian art hubs are slowly roaring back to life.

The last weekend of August saw Southeast Asian collectors flocking to Sotheby’s first live sale in Singapore in 15 years, as well as to Indonesia’s Art Jakarta fair, which returned after a two-year hiatus.

And on September 2, the first Asian edition of the Frieze art fair opened in Seoul, a large and sophisticated art market increasingly favoured by international galleries.

Dealers and collectors say that these regional rivals are unlikely to topple Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s biggest art market.

The auction of Walter Spies’ “Tierfabel” (1928) during Sotheby’s modern and contemporary auction in Singapore on August 28. Photo: Sotheby’s

“At the moment Jakarta has much more of a regional sensibility whereas Hong Kong is still the centre point of the art market in Asia,” says Indonesian art dealer Jun Tirtadji, whose gallery ROH Projects presented artist Bagus Pandega’s Breathe: Exhale (2022) at Art Jakarta.