Hong Kong auctions a first test for Rebecca Wei, Christie’s new president of Asia
All eyes will be on Wei as Christie’s in Hong Kong holds its 30th anniversary auctions in the face of a weakening economy that has stayed the hands of Chinese art buyers after a decade of uninhibited spending
Rebecca Wei goes about with a noticeable swagger these days. On March 22, an awkward parenthesis was removed from her title at Christie’s. Formerly the auction house’s Asia president (excluding China), Wei was running much of Hong Kong, the regional headquarters, and the region under Asia Pacific chairman Francois Curiel. Now, she has been handed the important but idiosyncratic China market, too.
WATCH: Christie’s auction preview
Wei describes the move as bringing together the leadership team in Hong Kong and Shanghai. That seems like a no-brainer when so many Chinese buyers are regulars at the Hong Kong auctions – people like Shanghai billionaire Liu Yiqian, who set a new auction record for Chinese works of art when he bought a 15th century Tibetan tapestry at a Sotheby’s sale for HK$348 million in 2014. Their business is not just important to Hong Kong and China.
Liu, for example, revealed the extent of his appetite for Western art when he paid US$170.4 million for Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 Nu Couché in New York in November 2015. When he attended the March 31 opening of Christie’s new Anniversary Gallery in Hong Kong’s Central district, an event to commemorate the auction house’s 30th year in Hong Kong, a specialist was eager to show him Monet’s Le Bassin aux Nymphéas (1919) ahead of its auction on May 12 in New York.
But Wei is taking over just as many Chinese buyers are taking a breather after a decade of uninhibited spending, and her first real test will be the week-long spring sales, starting on May 26, which celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary in Hong Kong.