UBS sponsors Art Basel Hong Kong as finance, culture intersect in Asia

The globalisation of the art world is extending from the cultural to the financial, with UBS sponsoring the Asian arts scene via a Hong Kong art fair.

The Swiss bank will become the new partner of Art Basel Hong Kong from tomorrow, the South China Morning Post has learned.

UBS will replace Deutsche Bank. The German bank sponsored Art Basel Hong Kong this year, the inaugural event under its new name. Deutsche has been sponsoring the fair's predecessor, ART HK, since 2009.

The Swiss bank has been a partner of Art Basel, the world's largest modern and contemporary art fair, for 20 years. It also became a partner when Art Basel launched Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002.

ART HK, which started in May 2008, rose to become Asia's largest modern and contemporary art fair.

In 2011, MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel), organisers of Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach, acquired a 60 per cent stake in ART HK's organisers, Asian Art Fairs. ART HK subsequently fell under the umbrella of the Art Basel family, which now has presences in Europe, the Americas and Asia.Chi-Won Yoon, chief executive of UBS Asia Pacific, said the new partnership with Art Basel Hong Kong was a "natural extension of a long-standing partnership with Art Basel".