One of the positive developments that Jonathan Stone, head of development in Asia for Christie's, saw in the otherwise disappointing contemporary-art auctions held this month in Hong Kong was that they "showed that Hong Kong has become the center of contemporary art in Asia."
An indication of the island's ascension to the status of "Asian contemporary art capital" was the rush with which the region's homegrown auction houses have started to move there this season. Of course, with the economy as it is, and buyers apparently pulling out of what had been the area's strongest commodity — Chinese contemporary art — their timing couldn't have been worse.
In 1973, Sotheby's was the first Western auction house to set up shop in Hong Kong. Christie's followed in 1986. This put them in the water in time to ride the Chinese art wave from start to finish. In a 2004 Sotheby's auction, a Yue Minjun painting went for just HK$ 600,000 (¥7 million) — a far cry from the HK$54 million (¥644 million) he achieved four years later.
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