Shanghai was the world’s party capital last week. Art galleries, auction houses and luxury brands pulled out the stops to put collectors and patrons in a celebratory mood during the first major art fair week held offline since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was a brief moment of nervousness when the wealthy Chinese city reported its first case of coronavirus in five months right before the start of art week on November 11, but that did not dampen visitors’ enthusiasm as they flocked to the two flagship art fairs: the West Bund Art & Design Fair and Art021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair. Long queues snaked from the entrances to both events on the days they were open to the public. The number of galleries exhibiting at the West Bund fair shrank from 97 in 2019 to 48 this year because dealers anticipated a smaller attendance than in 2019. But with many buyers of high-value pieces preferring to physically inspect a work before paying, exhibitors who did turn up were optimistic the fair would draw deep-pocked collectors from all over mainland China – who can enter Shanghai without quarantining. Wendy Xu Wen, director of White Cube gallery in Hong Kong, which had booths at both Art021 and West Bund, said the gallery racked up more than €1 million (US$1.2 million) in sales on the first day of the West Bund fair alone. “These are the first physical fairs that the gallery has joined since the pandemic. We observed a much bigger human traffic than last year. The attendance is by individual collectors, institutions and private museums,” Xu said. At Art021, White Cube staged a solo presentation of art by Qin Yifeng, and sold five works by the artist. Nick Wood, Asia director at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, which had a booth at the West Bund fair, said galleries sold “a lot more” than previously in Shanghai. “There’s revenge buying. People haven’t travelled for eight months. They haven’t bought big things or even left their cities for months. If you’re spending 100,000 yuan [on art] it’s OK, as they have a lot more disposable income,” he said. The gallery sold a sculpture by Erwin Wurm for above a million yuan and an Alex Katz painting for five million yuan. Art021 featured 114 galleries (compared with 110 last year), and more than 60 per cent were from overseas. One new entrant was 3125C Galleria, set up by Hong Kong pop star Edison Chen Koon-hei. The gallery said all 16 of the paintings by American artist Kelly Beeman, a friend of Chen, that it showed were sold on the first day. In the evenings, organisers of VIP parties had a relaxed approach to social distancing. One of the social highlights of the week was the UCCA Edge Ball on November 12, a fundraising art and fashion extravaganza that saw 800 revellers dancing into the night at Beijing-based UCCA’s soon-to-open satellite gallery in Shanghai. The following evening, three levels of the Shanghai K11 Art Mall, including its sky garden, were filled with an immersive, neon-lit art and music experience organised by the Hangzhou collective Martin Goya Business , with free beer flowing all night. This year saw Chinese auction house Poly Auction booking a booth at Art021 for the first time, as its international roadshows were disrupted by the pandemic. On view were two works by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara that will be auctioned in joint Poly and Phillips sales in Hong Kong in December: Hot House Doll, in the White Room III (1995), and a three-metre high 2007 untitled painting. Japanese artist Tomokazu Matsuyama was one of the few artists to fly to Shanghai from overseas for art week. He had a good reason for doing so – the 44-year-old’s first solo show in mainland China – “Accountable Nature” – is being held at the Long Museum West Bund. Matsuyama says booking a flight was challenging. “All of my original flights with American Airlines, United Airlines, Air China and Air Canada were cancelled. Originally I had to go to London, then Abu Dhabi then to Shanghai. But luckily I was able to find a last-minute [direct] flight from Heathrow airport in London to Shanghai.” He says it was worth it. “This was like my sixth quarantine this year. I don‘t know how many times I have done coronavirus testing [for visits to Tokyo and cities within America for art projects]. The least thing an artist can do right now is to contribute to the recovery of the culture sector.”