How Asian collectors are seeking a bigger piece of the art market pie – in Hong Kong especially: Sotheby’s and Phillips have seen bidders spend millions at auction, particularly on Western pieces

Mar 22 , 2023

Gerhard Richter’s Abstrakte Bilder is an exceedingly rare and enigmatic four-panelled painting executed in 1992. Photo: Sotheby’s

With Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 just around the corner, international visitors will experience the city’s new art scene for the first time, including M+ and Hong Kong Palace Museum

Sotheby’s and Phillips in Hong Kong have seen record prices paid for works by Western and Asian artists like Pablo Picasso, Gerhard Richter, Lucy Bull and Yayoi Kusama

There has been a dramatic shift in Hong Kong’s art scene over the past two years, thanks firstly to the opening of M+, the world-class contemporary art museum in 2021. Then came the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which opened its doors in July last year. And auction houses in the city are brimming with enthusiasm and confidence.

“This month will be the first time that international visitors will experience the new art scene in Hong Kong,” says Isaure de Viel Castel, head of 20th century and contemporary art at Phillips Hong Kong, which focuses solely on works of art from the 20th and 21st centuries.

The auction house has witnessed fast growth in the number of bidders from across Asia. “Many new collectors in the region are chasing rising stars from around the world, such as Lucy Bull for whom we set the world record price in July 2022 at HK$11.38 million (US$1.4 million),” De Viel Castel says. “We also saw strong bidding activities from Hong Kong and mainland China in our auctions in London and New York on artists like Caroline Walker and Flora Yukhnovich.”

She predicts that the desire to add new and young international artists to private collections will not fade away.

Giving Tree (2019) by Lucy Bull sold for HK$4.7 million. Photo: Phillips

Sotheby’s has been in Asia for five decades, an important milestone for the international auction house. “We’ve been doing business here for longer than anyone else,” says Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s chairman of modern and contemporary art, Asia, who moved to Hong Kong last year to run the company.

“In Hong Kong, we’ve always sought to reflect the collecting tastes in this part of the world. And I think it’s important that the auctions here maintain an identity different to our salerooms in London and New York,” he adds.

Branczik notices that there’s much more interest in Western art from Asian collectors. “Asian collectors are increasingly looking towards Western artists, some of the younger contemporary artists. But 10 years ago, for our 40-year anniversary sale, there wasn’t a single Western artist included in that auction. That was a reflection of collecting tastes at that time.”