New Chinese art buyers’ profile

The world of art has set its sights firmly on Hong Kong, driven by expectations that mainland China is giving rise to a formidable class of collectors of contemporary art. Phillips de Pury is probably the only global auction house to focus on contemporary art & design exclusively. It will hold its HK sales in the autumn. There are other art ventures in the form of Beijing’s Pékin Fine Arts renovating a space, Gagosian’s new gallery in the city, Emmanuel Perrotin’s desire (a Parisian dealer) to get an office, and the Pace Gallery’s plan to expand into Hong Kong.

Indeed, Hong Kong is now getting more attractive, and there are obvious practical reasons like censorship reasons, tax reasons, no requirement of visa and ease of conversation in English, points out the HK based Osage Art & Ideas director, Pauline Yao. The most important advantage is its physical proximity to mainland art collectors.

Traditional Chinese works & antiques still attract a far larger collector interest in the mainland, and also command eye-popping prices at auction sales but they are getting increasingly rare. According to Poly Auction director (contemporary art), Jia Wei, this is invariably going to affect the contemporary art market. Jia is coming across new buyers in the age group of 35 to 40, or less, educated abroad, and also well traveled and more aware of art trends.

Clinton Wu, a Beijing resident just in his 30s, is one such collector. He buys contemporary Chinese artists’ prints since he finds the original works too expensive. In spite of this rising interest, it’s still a long way to go for mainland collectors before they become a major force. They tend to buy cautiously, which is understandable. They prefer moderately priced works, and the top buyers are still seasoned overseas collectors.

On their part, the auction houses feel the need to educate collectors, and to stop the speculative trajectory of the Chinese contemporary art market. Efforts are already being made in this direction.