(Hong Kong French Discipline) Although the global art market has fallen from the high point of the crown disease, the three major international auction houses are competing in Hong Kong to expand in Hong Kong, hoping to attract young Asian buyers.
In these two months, Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bang Hanus will usher in the results of the regional headquarters upgraded in Hong Kong for many years.
Sotheby's Thursday (July 25) in a high -end shopping center in Central, Hong Kong unveiled the veil of flagship gallery.Christie's New Asia -Pacific District Headquarters will also open in Central this year. The total area of art space will double to 50,000 square feet.Bonhans will move to a new office building covering an 199,000 square foot in September.
Hu Weizheng, managing director of Banghanus Asia, said that Hong Kong is still an ideal base for other major Asian cities. Strategic location, high -efficiency logistics, collection foundation, and taxation and legal framework are favorable factors.
However, Huang Lin Shiyun, an art consultant, believes that the auction house is risky in Hong Kong.
Global art sales have slowed.The sales of Christie's in the first six months of this year were US $ 2.1 billion (S $ 2.819 billion), which fell for the second consecutive year, and below the peak of $ 4.1 billion in 2022.
伦敦艺术顾问温迪·戈德史密斯（Wendy Goldsmith）认为，China's real estate crisis is the main reason for the decline in sales."(Asian collectors) is currently a bit out of breath in buying, but the interest and appetite of collection still exist. The auction house knows that they will come back."
The auction house is now competing for young buyers to embrace online auctions.Christie's said that in the first half of this year, 29%of buyers were millennials or generations.The opportunities and challenges of the Hong Kong New Stadium will be how to bring online aboriginal buyers into the real world.
Hu Weizheng believes that the auction of the exhibition hall is irreplaceable."Our customers are still eager to get full of excitement and excitement when they come to the scene."
Mo Jianwei, a cultural policy scholar, said that although the critics believed that Beijing had stifled art freedom, The auction house is not worried about Hong Kong's political environment ."The companies operating in the Hong Kong art market are quite concerned about politics. They know that those (politics) works can't sell good prices here."
