A fair to remember
What? We partnered with Art Basel Hong Kong once again for the seventh staging of the city’s most exciting, peopled, talked-about, visited, sales-driven and viewed art event, which, in all its colourful, immersive and gigantic glory, took over the
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Booth buddies: On the evening of the vernissage, long before the doors opened to the general public, we invited friends of Prestige to pop over to our booth for a glass or two of bubbly (thank you, Ruinart!) and an exclusive VIP preview of the entire affair. We sent many of our guests into the halls, champagne flute in hand; Chinese whispers have it that some of our dears even bought a piece or two. Painting by numbers: If you thought that last year’s records couldn’t possibly be topped, you were wrong. This year’s fair attracted 242 galleries, including 21 new international participants, with a further welcome surprise being the Discoveries section, a platform focusing on solo shows by emerging artists that featured 25 new galleries. As we head to print, the total tally of sales has yet to be confirmed but conjecture has it that it was an exceptionally fine year.
Sold!: The unmissable Lee Bul piece Willing to be Vulnerable (Metalized Balloon) Balloon), which greeted guests entering the venue, sold for more than US$200,000; Andy Warhol’s 1962 Campbell’s Elvis went for a rather more stratospheric US$2.85 million – and, why, a blow-up canvas print of our very own Prestige March 2019 cover featuring Neo Rauch was coveted by a connoisseur, so we offered it to him at a very reasonable price…