The pandemic catalyzed the growing trend of listless wealthy people outbidding one another via online auctions, turning any possible luxury acquisition into a “so-called alternative asset class.” This inadvertently spurred the art auction market to new heights, with global auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s reporting sales totaling $7.1 billion and $7.3 billion, respectively, for 2021. Recent sales reports indicate that 2022 looks set to retain that level, even though Sotheby’s reported a decline in fine art sales from 2021.
Notably, Asian art buyers were a major factor for this growth, making up 31 percent of Christie’s global sales, 36 percent of Phillips’ global spend, and 46 percent of lots sold for more than US$5 million at Sotheby’s. While all three auction houses reported a drop in bidders and buyers from Asia in 2022 as compared to last year, they are still doubling down on their focus on the continent.
In July 2021, Christie’s revealed plans to move into a 50,000-square-foot, four-story Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong in 2024. The Russian-owned Phillips partnered with Poly Auction for its Hong Kong sales and announced plans to move into new, expanded premises next to the new M+ museum in the West Kowloon Cultural District in March 2023, coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong and their inaugural 20th century and contemporary art sales in the city. Sotheby’s will also be moving to its brand-new headquarters at the upcoming Six Pacific Place in Hong Kong, a short distance away from the auction house’s newly announced year-round exhibition space, both set to open in 2024.
International auction houses have also been expanding their teams in the continent. Bonhams made a slew of new appointments recently, with its Asia team now the biggest it has ever been. This is in addition to opening a new office in Shanghai in June 2021. Back at Sotheby’s, Alex Branczik, former London-based head of contemporary art, and Max Moore, a New York–based specialist focusing on NFTs, joined the house’s Asia team last year.
Intriguingly, this year in particular, specific cities, beyond China and Hong Kong, have caught the attention of the global auction market. At the end of August, Sotheby’s held a successful auction sale in Singapore for the first time in 15 years while Christie’s hosted a highly popular public viewing of a controversial Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the city. Moreover, Christie’s posted a job ad for an associate specialist in Singapore. And Phillips will hold a pop-up exhibition showcasing works by California-based artist Brett Crawford in Singapore during the week of the launch of ART SG, the city’s biggest art fair.
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