Seoul emerging as Asia art hub at the expense of Hong Kong, where law’s heavy hand is increasingly felt and rents are high
- International art dealers now see Seoul as the beachhead market in Asia for selling to big-ticket collectors, and more have been opening or expanding there
- Some have scaled back or left Hong Kong, where the spectre of censorship looms and several galleries were recently told they were in breach of licensing rules
For years, Austrian art dealer Thaddaeus Ropac had planned to open his first Asian gallery in Hong Kong. The veteran gallerist, who represents the estates of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, says conventional wisdom was that the Asian market was concentrated in Hong Kong and galleries “wanted only to be in Hong Kong”.
This autumn, he is opening the first Asia branch of Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, and it will be in Seoul.
The South Korean capital has been gaining popularity as the beachhead market for selling big-ticket artworks to wealthy collectors. In April, Berlin gallery König moved its only Asian outpost from Tokyo to Seoul. Last month, Pace relocated its four-year-old gallery in the city to a space that is four times bigger.
Also in May, London’s Frieze announced that Seoul was its choice for its long-talked-about first fair in Asia, to be held in September 2022. Other multinational art dealers, such as Perrotin and Lehmann Maupin, have also set up shop there over the past few years.
If Seoul is in the ascendancy as an international art market, then Hong Kong appears to be at the opposite end of the see-saw.