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

Among the works sold, Picasso's "Girl with a Beret" sold for $ 5.5 million or one of the famous pumpkins of the Japanese Yayoi Kusama acquired for $ 3.5 million, according to data disclosed by the fair.

A pumpkin by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama on display at Hong Kong's Art Basel fair on March 21, 2023 © Peter PARKS / AFP

Published at the discretion of the galleries, however, not all concluded transactions have been communicated, such as the price of Beeple's "kinetic sculpture", put up for sale at $ 9 million.

"Asia is the fastest growing art market in the world," Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK), told AFP.

"Look at the quality of the visitors," enthuses Sébastien Carvalho, director of the Parisian gallery Mitterrand, installed near a "white Nana" by Niki de Saint Phalle.

Visitors at Art Basel in Hong Kong, March 21, 2023 © Peter PARKS / AFP

"People from all over Asia who come here, collectors of very high flight" who are "not afraid to put the means," he told AFP.

Impact of censorship?

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

But individual freedoms have been severely curtailed in the financial center since Beijing imposed its harsh national security law after the 2019 pro-democracy protests.

The 2020 law "created self-censorship in the creative industry," said Kacey Wong, an artist who left the city in 2021 due to the crackdown.

Visitors look at a work by Malaysian artist Justin Lim on display at Hong Kong's Art Basel fair on March 21, 2023 © Peter PARKS / AFP

"Just because the sales amounts at Art Basel are good, it doesn't mean Hong Kong is back," he said, because "artists are turning instead to ornamental and colorful subjects to avoid the red lines" of the law.

Last week, a piece of art bearing the names of protesters jailed in Hong Kong was removed from a huge billboard in the heart of the city.

Fair officials, on the other hand, assured AFP that the censorship had "no impact" on their work.

Visitors look at a work from Tokyo's Kaikai Kiki gallery on display at Hong Kong's Art Basel fair on March 21, 2023 © Peter PARKS / AFP

"We are confident that we will operate in the same way as before," Siyang-Le said.

'Huge potential'

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

"Hong Kong retains the advantage of a well-structured market, with the presence of major international players (...) which translates into a considerable lead in terms of sales revenue," says 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.

"The potential of this region is immense," Alex Branczik, head of modern and contemporary art Asia at Sotheby's, told AFP.

A woman looks at works on display at the Art Basel fair in Hong Kong, March 23, 2023 © Peter PARKS / AFP

For the world's three main auction houses, Hong Kong is "the new Eldorado", notes Artprice in its latest study: Christie's made 8% of its global turnover on works of art in 2022, Sotheby's 12% and Phillips 13%.

"The average price of a work is always higher than anywhere else on earth: $280,000," Ehrmann said.

China accounts for 24% of the global art market, second only to the United States, compared to 2% in 35, after seeing its sales fall by 2021% in 34 due to the pandemic, according to Artprice.

But auction houses are betting that the slowdown will not last, and are even planning ambitious expansions of their Hong Kong activities as early as 2024.

Sotheby's, headquartered in New York, now has as many bidders in Asia as in North America.

"It is an essential pillar of our business. And not just in Hong Kong," he added, noting that Asian bidders are also "essential" in auction houses in London, New York and Paris.

In 2022, two-thirds of its new customers were Asian and "much younger", says the manager.

Visitors watch "The Necronome", a bronze sculpture by Swiss artist H.R. Giger on display at Hong Kong's Art Basel fair on March 23, 2023 © Peter PARKS / AFP

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

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

"I think auction houses and collectors will be smart enough to stay away from controversial artists and works" that may be considered seditious, said Wong, who is exiled in Taiwan, who says he does not "dare" to exhibit in Hong Kong.

© 2023 AFP