Pic: Sotheby's
Inside, the rich spent millions on art and fine drinks. Outside, tear gas filled the streets, as an anxious Hong Kong was again engulfed by protests.
Those two scenes -- the first, at an art auction inside the city’s modernistic convention center, the second, in the neon-lit roads of the nearby Wan Chai district -- seemed to capture the dissonance that has become the new normal for Hong Kong.
Week after week, as protesters have clashed with police, the city’s wealthy have largely carried on. While property values and stock prices have dipped, the 10 richest tycoons who derive their fortunes from Hong Kong are still worth $197 billion, just 4% less than when the protests started in mid-June, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Judging by the turnout at the five-day auction by Sotheby’s -- and the prices art has commanded -- elites from Hong Kong and the rest of Asia are as keen as ever to open their pocketbooks.
The highlight of Sunday’s contemporary art auction was a new world record for Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara, whose painting of a cute but menacing cartoon girl -- "Knife Behind Back” -- sold for $24.9 million. On Saturday, Sotheby’s auctioned a canvas by Chinese emigre artist Sanyu for $25.2 million, with four bidders pushing the painting of a nude female above its $19 million target.
The event includes 20 live auctions that are expected to fetch more than $336 million. On Tuesday, the auction hall for Chinese antiques was packed as a rare pouch-shaped glass vase from the Qing dynasty sold for $22.95 million.
The contrast with chaos on the streets in recent days -- in some cases just a short walk from the convention center -- was striking.
It’s unclear whether the billionaires placed any bids at Sotheby’s this week.
