In Hong Kong, the art market finds its "eldorado" despite censorship

Asia's second-largest art market, Hong Kong, regained momentum at Art Basel last week, recording millions of dollars in deals in a city where political artistic expression is suppressed by law.

More than 86,000 visitors roamed the exhibition halls of the international contemporary art fair, which has regained its pre-pandemic scale with sales of more than 98 million dollars reported by Art Basel, twice as high as 2019.

Among the works sold,

by Picasso sold for 5.5 million dollars or one of the famous pumpkins by the Japanese Yayoi Kusama acquired for 3.5 million, according to data disclosed by the fair.

Published at the discretion of the galleries, the transactions concluded have not all been communicated, however, such as the price of the

of Beeple, put up for sale at 9 million dollars.

"

," Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK), told AFP.

“

,” enthuses Sébastien Carvalho, director of the Parisian gallery Mitterrand, seated near a

by Niki de Saint Phalle.

"

" who are "

", he comments to AFP.

Impact of censorship?

Hong Kong totaled more than $1.16 billion at auction in 2022, behind Beijing ($2.01 billion), according to analytics firm Artprice.

But individual freedoms have been severely curtailed in the financial hub since Beijing imposed its tough national security law after pro-democracy protests in 2019. The 2020 law "created self-censorship in the creative industry", laments

Wong , an artist who left town in 2021 due to the crackdown.

“

” he asserts, because “

” of the law.

Last week, an artwork featuring the names of imprisoned Hong Kong protesters was removed from a huge billboard in the heart of the city.

Fair officials, on the other hand, assured AFP that the censorship had "had no

" on their work. "

" , Ms. Siyang-Le said.

“Immense potential”

While Hong Kong was paralyzed by its drastic health restrictions, some neighboring megacities made a name for themselves in the art market, such as Seoul which took over Frieze in September, or Singapore which launched a new fair in January.

"

", however asserts Thierry Ehrmann, director of Artprice. .

One of the advantages of the Chinese metropolis is the absence of customs duties, value-added taxes or inheritance taxes on works of art.

“

», Enthuses with AFP Alex Branczik, responsible for modern and contemporary art Asia at Sotheby's.

For the three main auction houses in the world, Hong Kong is "

", notes Artprice in its latest study: Christie's achieved 8% of its global turnover on works of art there, in 2022. , Sotheby's 12% and Phillips 13%.

"

", asserts Mr. Ehrmann.

China weighs 24% of the world art market, in 2nd place behind the United States, against 35% in 2021, after having seen its sales drop by 34% in 2022 due to the pandemic, according to Artprice.

But auction houses are betting that the slowdown won't last, and are even planning ambitious expansions of their Hong Kong operations as early as 2024. Sotheby's, headquartered in New York, now has as many bidders in Asia as in North America. North.

“

,” he adds, noting that Asian bidders are also “

” in auction houses in London, New York and Paris.

In 2022, two thirds of its new customers were Asian and "

", says the manager.

Last year, Sotheby's signed a 2,230 m2 rental lease in the heart of Central, the Hong Kong business district with some of the most expensive rents in the world.

But outside of the city's artistic elite, some artists make a harder living from their work.

'

' that may be deemed seditious, says Taiwan exile Wong, who says he doesn't '

' exhibit in Hong Kong.