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OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: BONHAMS; TOKYO CHUO AUCTION; PHILLIPS; POLY AUCTION

Early last December, creative types and collecting luminaries

from Hong Kong’s art crowd assembled for the opening of

“Tracing Some Places,” a long-awaited solo exhibition of

new works by Leung Chi Wo, ranging from photography to

kinetic installations. The gathering not only celebrated the

growing stature of one of the city’s homegrown talents but

also signaled a building out of the city’s art infrastructure

beyond its famously market-driven roots. The show inaugu-

rated the Mills Gallery, a new nonproi t art space occupying

26,000 square feet within the 1950s-built Nan Fung textile

factory in Tsuen Wan, the New Territories. The industrial

complex is being refurbished as a cluster of spaces to house

art exhibitions, cultural production, and creative industries.

Over the coming three years, the Mills will become the city’s

largest privately initiated heritage conservation project.

Angelika Li, director of the Mills Gallery,

says Hong Kong is i nally realizing an art scene

to match its booming art economy, which

continues to attract international auction and

art fair players even in the face of market

contraction on mainland China. The momen-

tum brought by the launch of major, publicly

funded cultural endeavors—such as the West

Kowloon Cultural District, where the l agship

M+ museum will be located, and Tai Kwun,

the arts and culture complex at the revitalized,

historic Central Police Station—as well as the

proliferation of nonproi t private museums and

institutions over the past few years, have grad-

ually made Hong Kong a cultural destination.

Hong Kong has long been regarded as one

of the world’s most important i nancial centers, from co-

lonial times under British rule until 1997, when its sover-

eignty was handed over to the People’s Republic of China.

Shortly after the handoff, Sotheby’s and Christie’s took

advantage of Hong Kong’s unique status as a business-

friendly free port with a low tax rate and no tariffs on the

trading of artworks, launching major sales of art and

luxury items that put the city on the art world map.

The past decade saw a fast-growing Hong Kong art

market riding on China’s economic boom, which has only

recently begun to cool. Sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s

went up signii cantly, setting headline-grabbing auc-

tion records. In 2013, the autumn series at Sotheby’s

Hong Kong totaled $HK4.2 billion ($538 million), the

highest-ever sales series by a global arts business in Asia

at the time. And in 2014, Christie’s Hong

Kong sold a 15th-century imperial thangka

to mainland Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian,

cofounder of the Long Museum in Shanghai,

for $HK348 million ($45 million), setting

a record for the most expensive Chinese work

of art ever sold at auction.

The success of the leading auction houses

in Hong Kong has drawn other players to the

game. Mainland China’s top houses, Poly

Auction and China Guardian, began holding

sales in Hong Kong in 2012. This decade has

also seen Taiwanese auction house Ravenel,

Est-Ouest from Japan, and Seoul Auction from

South Korea join the fray, along with local

newcomer Tiancheng International Auctioneer.

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ART+AUCTION MARCH 2016 (^) | BLOUINARTINFO.COM
Hong Kong has become an
essential outpost for inter-
national auction houses,
including (opposite, clock-
wise from top left) Bonhams,
which entered the market
relatively early with a May
2007 sale and maintains
offices at Pacific Place in
the city’s Admiralty district;
Seoul Auction, whose 17th
sale in the city in November
was previewed at the Grand
Hyatt, where 98 lots brought
in $26 million; Phillips, which
made its debut in the city
this past December with an
auction of fine timepieces;
and Poly Auction Hong Kong,
established by Beijing’s
Poly Culture Group in 2012,
which racked up $118 million
during its fall 2015 sales.