Entitled How should the West adapt to meet the demands of the burgeoning Asian/Chinese market?, the debate, which will be held in the London Room at Olympia at 5pm on Tuesday, June 12, will field four experts with extensive experience of working directly in those markets.
Colin Sheaf, an authority on Asian ceramics and Asian art and head of Asian art at Bonhams and chairman of Bonhams Asia, directs teams in London, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Having developed Christie's business in Hong Kong during the 1980s, he played a leading role in the great shipwreck sales of the 1980s and '90s. In November 2011, he achieved the highest price during the London Asian art auction series when he sold a Qianlong vase for £8m hammer, as well as seeing Bonhams pass both Christie's and Sotheby's for the total amount taken in the series for the first time.
Outside Bonhams, Colin has been most excited by his involvement as one of the two trustees of the Percival David Foundation, the greatest collection in private hands in the western world of Imperial Chinese ceramics.
Andy Hei is the second generation of the Hong Kong Chinese H.L. Hei family, dealers in huanghuali and zitan furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties for over 50 years. He established his own classical Chinese furniture gallery, Andy Hei Ltd, in Hollywood Road, Hong Kong, in 1999.
Andy's years of experience of participating in several art fairs in London and New York led him to launch the first annual Hong Kong International Asian Antiques and Arts Fair in 2006. He has developed an active fairs programme since then, culminating in Fine Art Asia, which runs each October.
A collector of Chinese paintings and works of art, as well as Asian contemporary art, he writes a special column for ATG, sharing his view on the Asian and Hong Kong art market. The latest of these can be see on page 63.
Kate Bryan joined the Fine Art Society in London's Bond Street as head of contemporary in 2011, having previously been gallery director of The Cat Street Gallery in Hong Kong.
During her four years in Hong Kong, Kate was responsible for bringing important international names to the HK art world, including solo shows for Sir Peter Blake, Gavin Turk, David Mach, Debbie Han and a collaboration between David Lynch and the shoe designer Christian Louboutin. She was the Hong Kong Contributing Editor for Asian Art News and World Sculpture News, as well as a regular contributor of arts and travel features for Kee Magazine, Sentinel Magazine and The South China Morning Post.
Prior to moving to Asia, Kate worked at the British Museum for five years.
Ben Goodger is a partner with international law firm Edwards Wildman, which has 14 offices including London, Boston, New York and Hong Kong. An intellectual property (IP) practitioner, he has over 20 years experience in advising companies on the strategic management, commercialisation and protection of their valuable IP. Ben's clients include multinational corporations, SMEs, lenders, and academic institutions. He spent two years in Shanghai, where he managed his previous firm's China business and Asia commercial IP groups, and has internationally-recognised expertise in advising on strategies for the protection, commercialisation and management of IP assets in China and Asia. Intellectual Asset Management magazine listed him in its IAM Strategy 250 - The World's Leading IP Strategists in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
