The scenes at Hong Kong's Art Basel fair last week had not been seen since 2019, with a crackdown on pro-democracy protests and pandemic restrictions in the intervening years radically transforming the city.
The energy at Art Basel reflected the increasing importance of the Asian art market, said organisers, who told AFP that their work was not impacted by the city's national security law."Asia has been the fastest developing art market in the world," Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong, told AFP.
Last week, a digital artwork that contained the names of jailed Hong Kong democracy protesters on a billboard in the heart of the city was taken down."So far we feel like there's been no impact, we are confident that we will be operating the same way as before," Siyang-Le said.Hong Kong's national security law has criminalised dissent, including in art"It's an opportunity to get more ," said M Pravat, a New Delhi-based artist who was exhibiting at Art Basel.
"Hong Kong retains the advantage of a well-structured market, with the presence of the major international players... which translates into a considerable lead in terms of sales revenue," he told AFP.