Earlier this year, Ning Chong, a Singaporean art consultant, set up Family Office for Art with her father, Chong Huai Seng, a former investment banker and art collector. Since its launch in June, FOFA has received interest from private banks and their clients to share more about their experiences in buying and investing in art, as well as harnessing one’s passion to initiate new business ideas and legacy-building.
Michael Tay, a long-time Singaporean arts patron and the group managing director of The Hour Glass, a homegrown luxury watch retailer, agrees that family offices can play a “very important part in and apart from straight out philanthropy, their contributions can also be shaped and directed through public policy.”
Tay added that the upcoming ART SG would be an opportunity for the global contemporary art world to discover that there is a vibrancy among collectors residing in Southeast Asia and that “while it has been a region that has been overshadowed by our North East Asian cousins, the time now is ripe for its cultivation.”