HONG KONG: As thousands of visitors streamed through a Hong Kong exhibition hall and deals were struck for works by Picasso and Yayoi Kusama, art collectors celebrated the Asian financial hub's return to its bustling heyday.
Among the biggest deals were a 1964 Picasso sold for US$5.5 million, as well as works by Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga and a strikingly surreal"pumpkin" by Kusama , according to reported sales figures released by the fair. "I don't think just because the sale number at Art Basel is good means 'Hong Kong is Back'," said Kacey Wong, a dissident artist who left the city in 2021 due to the crackdown.
Years of harsh pandemic restrictions in Hong Kong have seen other Asian cities, including Seoul and Singapore, vie to supplant it on the international art scene. One of Hong Kong's main advantages for collectors is its lack of customs duties, value-added taxes or inheritance taxes on works of art.China is the world's second-largest art market, after the United States, with sales set to recover from a dip related to pandemic controls that have now been lifted, according to Artprice.