‘Hong Kong is not the place anyone wants to go’: Art Basel cancellation urged by galleries amid coronavirus outbreak

Art Basel Hong Kong organisers face pressure from gallery owners taking part in March event to cancel the fair because of health emergency in China

‘Not one of our foreign clients will be attending,’ gallerist tells organisers. With Art Basel owner struggling financially, cancellation could be problematic

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Visitors during Art Basel Hong Kong in 2019. The art fair drew 88,000 people, but gallery owners have put pressure on organisers to scrap this year’s edition because of the coronavirus outbreak centred on Wuhan in China. Photo: James Wendlinger

Published: 2:34pm, 30 Jan 2020Updated: 11:53am, 31 Jan 2020

The spread of the deadly coronavirus may jeopardise Art Basel Hong Kong, one of Asia’s most prestigious art fairs, with participating galleries asking organisers to cancel the event’s eighth edition in March.

The death toll from the virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has risen to at least 170 while the number of cases has jumped to more than 7,700. In Hong Kong, where 10 cases have been confirmed, museums, concert halls, theatres, and schools have been closed.

The Hong Kong Marathon, which was set to take place early next month, was cancelled. From Thursday, direct rail services to and from mainland China are suspended and flights will be reduced by half.

“Hong Kong is not the place where anyone wants to go right now,” says Janelle Reiring, co-founder of Metro Pictures Gallery in New York. “Because of the politics, the protests and now the virus. No one wants to send people to work there the way things are.”

Hong Kong has been rocked by eight months of street protests, some of them violent, sparked by a now-shelved government proposal to change extradition laws which would have allowed fugitives to be sent to mainland China where, opponents of the measure believe, courts are not independent.