Christie’s Asia to hold year-round sales at new headquarters in Hong Kong from 2024

Auctioneer will have four floors in The Henderson, which is being developed in Hong Kong’s Central district on the world’s most expensive commercial land plot

Christie’s Asia head says the auctioneer wants to make the most of region’s deep-pocketed collectors, and the move will quadruple its exhibition space

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An artist’s rendering of the lobby of the Christie’s Asia headquarters as it will look when construction is complete on The Henderson, an office tower in Central, Hong Kong, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects.

Published: 4:42pm, 27 Jul 2021Updated: 6:45pm, 27 Jul 2021

Auctioneer Christie’s has signed a 10-year lease on a new Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong that will allow it to hold year-round auctions and private sales from 2024.

The building, called The Henderson, is being developed in the city’s Central district on Hong Kong Island by Henderson Land in the space where the Murray Road multistorey car park used to stand. It is designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the British firm named after and founded by the late British-Iraqi star architect.

Francis Belin, president of Christie’s Asia, said talks for the auction house to move in as an anchor tenant began last year. The move from its current premises in Alexandra House, also in Central, will allow the French-owned auction house to ramp up sales volume to capture the growing demand for art and luxury items in the region, he said.

It would allow Christie’s to hold 20 weeks of sales scheduled around six “marquee” auctions dedicated to different categories, a model more in line with the how the rest of the world works, Belin added. The company will abandon its twice-yearly spring and autumn sales at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai and hold all auctions and private sales in-house.

The Henderson is designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the British firm founded by the late British-Iraqi star architect.

Belin is confident that Hong Kong, despite recent political turmoil, will remain the regional hub for the high-end art trade, even if some commercial galleries have scaled back or left the city amid growing regulatory uncertainty for businesses that show art in public.

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