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Mabel Lui

Before Art Basel Hong Kong or even its predecessor Art HK, there was Fine Art Asia.
Well before Hong Kong became one of the world’s biggest contemporary art markets, the city was a thriving centre for antiques trading.
That trade was the foundation of the now nearly 20-year-old fair, which this year opens to the general public on October 4 – one day after VIPs get access – and runs until October 7 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Antiques are in the blood of the fair’s founder, Andy Hei, who apprenticed at his father’s Chinese antiques business in Hong Kong and set up his eponymous antique furniture shop on Hollywood Road, in Central, in 1999.

But Fine Art Asia has diversified. The 2024 edition has a section dedicated to ink art, called Ink Asia, which has been a stand-alone fair in the past.
There will also be a new “Collectible Design – Asia Section Pavilion”, which will feature contemporary pieces such as Hong Kong designer Ron Leung’s Laputa Sofa – which has an inbuilt Bluetooth sound system and lighting that synchronises with music – and other objects made by prominent Asian designers.
“People think, ‘Oh, you are from the antique business, you [must] be old-fashioned.’ But I keep telling people that antique itself was once contemporary,” Hei says.
Hei is an active supporter of the arts. He is on the board of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and was appointed to the Hong Kong government’s Culture Commission in 2023.
The trends of the art business keep changing
Andy Hei, Fine Art Asia founder
Hei invited Grace Lau, a former board member of the non-profit Hong Kong Design Centre and a veteran of the design industry, to curate the new collectibles section.
“We see there’s a great opportunity [to] open up a new market and a horizon for the creative industry in Hong Kong for designers to work with artisans,” Lau says.
She notes that famous Hong Kong designers such as Alan Chan, Stanley Wong and Freeman Lau have created collectible objects but that until now there has been no major platform from which to sell them.
Over 100 items from 30 participants will feature in the design section of the fair, with roughly a third each of the items coming from Hong Kong, mainland China and elsewhere in Asia.

“What’s inside the collectible design pavilion section is something younger and more trendy,” Lau says.
The point is to appeal to young people who may not be able to afford or simply are not interested in antique cabinets and brush pots, she adds. Instead, visitors will find items including a watch made by Hong Kong brand Memorigin in collaboration with artist-designer Kan Tai-keung.
“The trends of the art business keep changing,” Hei says, adding he has introduced NFTs, AI-generated art and metaverse experiences to the fair in the past.

Back when Hei founded Fine Art Asia in 2006, the fair only sold Chinese antiques and featured 15 booths. It was the third antique art fair of its kind in Hong Kong; the first two, held during the mid-1980s and early 1990s respectively, lasted only a few years each because of Hong Kong’s small market, Hei says.
“The art or antique business here in Hong Kong was relatively conservative – no marketing, no PR, no advertisement, not even a street-level gallery,” Hei says. “My father has never had a street-level gallery since [he opened his shop in] 1969.”
As a young man, Hei was sent by his father to work alongside the renowned American dealer Robert Hatfield Ellsworth in New York, where he got to see different types of business practices and was inspired by the Western world’s art market, which was more advanced.
Seeing antiques from around the world and from different eras showing under the same roof at antiques fairs left a particularly deep impression.
So when the market for antiques in Hong Kong boomed in the 1990s and 2000s, Hei saw his chance to bring the fair concept to the city and launched the first edition of Fine Art Asia at the China Resources Building, in Wan Chai.

After a gallerist asked for a private room to count cash stashed in a suitcase that a mainland Chinese collector had handed over, Hei knew that his instinct was right – the mainland market was going to fuel growth in Hong Kong.
Today, 80 per cent of Hei’s clients are from the mainland, with 15 per cent in Hong Kong. Back when his father first set up in Hong Kong, 80 per cent of his clients were international, coming from places like the US and the UK.
“The situation has reversed. We definitely do not rely on the international market any more,” he says.
This year’s edition of Fine Arts Asia is still rooted in antiques. Hei’s own booth will be selling some 300 antique wooden brush pots and three folding chairs from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.
The fair has yet to return to its pre-Covid peak of about 100 booths. This year there will be 66 booths, which is similar to the 2023 edition.

Asked if he applied to the government’s Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund for funding, Hei says the fair “is not a mega event”.
In 2023, the Ink Asia fair was supported by the fund, using the extra resources for marketing and the installation of public artworks, Hei says. He does not rule out applying for the fund again in the future, but notes that the application process is time-consuming.
Looking forward, he says Hong Kong continues to have the fundamental advantage of being a tax-free and highly efficient place to trade art and antiques.
“I still strongly believe Hong Kong is the place to develop our business. And I also believe that there will be future generations in Hong Kong preserving the knowledge of this city’s antiques business.”


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A 3rd century Gandhara sculpture of Bodhisattva Padmapani will be presented at the 2024 Fine Art Asia fair by Carlton Rochell Asian Art (Photo courtesy of the gallery)


Antiques run in the blood of Fine Art Asia founder Andy Hei. He explains how Hong Kong’s antique market has changed in recent decades, and why, for the 2024 fair, he and curator Grace Lau changed things up to attract a younger crowd. Photo: Edmond So

An imperial orange-brown lacquer cabinet made during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) that will be presented at Fine Art Asia 2024 by Luohan Tang. Photo: courtesy of Luohan Tang

Designer Ron Leung’s Laputa Sofa will be on show at Fine Art Asia 2024. Photo: courtesy of Ron Leung

Design industry veteran Grace Lau will curate the “Collectible Design – Asia Section Pavilion” at Fine Art Asia 2024. Photo: Edmond So

A third-century sculpture of the Bodhisattva Padmapani will be presented at this year’s fair by New York-based Carlton Rochell Asian Art. Photo: courtesy of Carlton Rochell Asian Art

Hei and Lau at Hei’s eponymous antiques shop in Central, Hong Kong, ahead of Fine Art Asia 2024. Photo: Edmond So

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Christie’s chief executive Guillaume Cerutti in Venice. While in Hong Kong for the inauguration of the auction house’s new Asia headquarters, he expressed excitement, but said the company will now have to “think in a more holistic way” about sales scheduling. Photo: Getty Images

Bids are taken on Vincent van Gogh’s Les canots amarrés at Christie’s new Asia headquarters in Hong Kong on September 26. Photo: AFP

Van Gogh’s Les canots amarrés ended up selling for US$27.6 million, which was below estimates. Photo: Christie’s

A man uses a phone to illuminate Van Gogh’s Les canots amarrés at Christie’s new Asia headquarters. Cerutti says the auction house wants to add market share in Asia, but not at the expense of its European operations. Photo: EPA-EFE

A lounge for clients inside Christie’s new Asia headquarters at The Henderson in Hong Kong. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2024

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Mark Bradford poses with students in front of a mural in Sham Shui Po created as part of gallery Hauser & Wirth’s  Education Lab in Hong Kong. The American artist’s exhibition at the gallery runs until March 1, 2025. Photo: Ivan Chan

Mark Bradford is in Hong Kong for the opening of his new show “Exotica” at Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Sean Shim-Boyle

Installation view of Bradford’s solo exhibition “Exotica” at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong. Photo: Hauser & Wirth

Bradford works with Education Lab participants in Sham Shui Po. Photo: Ivan Chan 

Bradford (left) stands with David Jasper Wong (second left) and participants in Hauser & Wirth’s Education Lab in Hong Kong. Photo: Ivan Chan 

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Lousy’s body paint on a nude woman. The anonymous Hong Kong graffiti artist paints bold designs on young, naked women then photographs them in erotic poses. Photo: Lousy                                                         

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Artist Lousy’s portrait. Photo: Lousy

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Fine Art Asia founder Andy Hei and collectibles section curator Grace Lau talk about involving a younger crowd in at the 2024 fair


Fine Art Asia founder Andy Hei and collectibles section curator Grace Lau talk about involving a younger crowd in at the 2024 fair.
