Asia

Hong Kong has given its ivory traders five years before its rules are tightened.

Economist and author of the annual TEFAF Art Market Report Clare McAndrew has left TEFAF to join with Art Basel, it has been announced.

Contemporary art dealer David Zwirner has announced plans to open a fourth gallery in Hong Kong in 2017.

A Ming stem cup sold at Lyon & Turnbull’s debut auction in Hong Kong today for £3.68m (HK$41,560,000) including buyer’s premium.

The Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring series of sales closed today chalking up a total of HK$502.8m/USD$64.5m/GB£242.3m.

Bonhams say they are “reorganising operations” after Magnus Renfrew, the company’s deputy chairman in Asia, was laid off along with seven other members of staff based in Hong Kong.

The centrepiece of Sotheby’s April auction series in Hong Kong will be the collection of around 100 lots of Chinese porcelain spanning the Tang to Qing dynasties that was formed by the British collector Roger Pilkington.

Hong Kong is to tighten its rules on ivory.

Sotheby’s will open an office in Mumbai, as they bid to expand their Indian businesses with two ‘strategic’ appointments in the region.

Guillaume Cerutti, chief executive of Sotheby’s France and European deputy chairman, is to leave and join Christie’s as president for London, Continental Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India.

A group of 32 ancient gold ornaments have been returned to China following claims they had been illegally removed.

Berlin online auction house Auctionata set a house record when this Chinese enamel, ivory-mounted and paste-set musical and automaton clock was sold for €2.8m (£2.15m), or €3.37m including premium.

Attracting collectors and experts from around the world, the third edition of ‘Asia Week Hong Kong’ will take place from May 27 to June 11.

As Frieze week in London has shown, once one art fair in a given city – London, New York, Paris – gains critical mass, others spring up around it.

Among the most important Asian works of art to come to market in the modern collecting era, an Imperial Ming dynasty embroidered silk thangka sold for HK$310m (£27m) at a Christie’s latest Chinese art series in Hong Kong.

Bonhams will their launch their sales of Modern and Contemporary Art from Asia in Hong Kong on March 15 during the ‘Art Basel Hong Kong’ week.

Visitors admire a stand at the 10th edition of Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong, staged from October 4-7 in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, against a backdrop of the pro-democracy protests in the city.

Christie’s have opened their new exhibition space and office in Shanghai at the Ampire Building, near the Bund.

Sotheby's have made their first foray into the wine retail market by opening their first wine store in Hong Kong.

Spink have unveiled their new Hong Kong operation, dubbed Spink China, with the first sale, focused on wines and spirits, set for August 20.