The Art of Appreciation

The following is a transcript of the video.

Narration: Home to a host of financial institutions, Hong Kong is one of the world's wealthiest cities.

However, over the past decade, the number of millionaires here has fallen by 4%.

Despite this, one sector in this 'special administrative region' is showing great promise – art.

The Hong Kong Art Gallery Association recorded a 27% increase in member galleries between 2021 and 2023.

And the world's largest auction houses are upsizing to meet demand – Christies, and Sotheby's which has been operating here since the 1970s.

I met Chairman for Asia, Nicolas Chow.

Nicolas Chow: 50 years ago, when we came to Asia, actually were the first ones here, we brought Chinese art.

This is what we're our auctions were centered around.

And today we've sort of really opened the market to all sorts of new experiences and new material, from dinosaurs to cars to contemporary art, from all around the world. NFTs, sneakers, you name it, we have it for you.

Emily Tan: What has social media done to the art world and the auction world? are the buyers younger now?

Nicolas Chow: The buyers are increasingly younger, what we've seen actually in 2023, to really shift now the Gen X is the most important buy - base actually over a million dollars, they dominate the market. And that's for the first time. And now we see of course, millennials taking on contemporary art. And the market now, over 40% of the buyers in that category.

Our social media presence is very strong now on Instagram, what we see is a huge engagement of buyers really responding to these posts and buying material that they've seen they've engaged with.

Emily Tan: It's not only modern and contemporary art for sale here.

Nicolas Chow: Chinese art and