How to become a Hong Kong art investor

You like art, you want to buy some, but where do you start? How do you go a about it? What should you be looking for? Some local experts give their advice

By Christopher DeWolf 25 May, 2010

You can excuse Magnus Renfrew for looking a bit tired. "I've been on 40 flights in six months," he says at the headquarters of the Hong Kong International Art Fair, on the 19th floor of the Lippo Centre. Since he launched the fair in 2008, Renfrew has made it into a pillar of the emerging Asian art market, thanks in large part to his round-the-world travels to drum up interest in the fair. For this year's edition, which starts Thursday, 150 galleries from 29 countries will come to Hong Kong to showcase their works.

Those aren't the only big numbers when it comes to art in Hong Kong. Last year, Christie's and Sotheby's sold more than US$500 million worth of art here, making Hong Kong the world's third-biggest market for art, after New York and London. Most transactions are private, so there aren't any clear records on who is buying all of this art, but it's well-known that collectors and investors from around the world have been eyeing works by contemporary Chinese artists.

For someone just getting into buying art, though, where do you start? And how do you do it? We asked a few local art experts for advice.












Go out and explore before investing.





1. Get out




Reading the big art publications like Art Asia Pacific is an obvious way to find out what's going on, but too often they'll only lead you to what everyone else is already interested in. "If you want to have 'in' artists, read that," says art critic, gallery owner and Art Walk organizer John Batten. "But I think it's interesting to pick up little gems from young artists and students while travelling around."
Batten keeps track of more obscure artists like Ivy Ma and Enoch Cheung by following shows at spaces like the C&G Artpartment, the Cattle Depot and the Art Centre, which all specialize in emerging artists. "The graduation shows coming up in the next month are always good places to start," he says. "You've got to be pretty committed to keep up with it all. And be very careful with hype. There's a lot of hype. Avoid anything like Peak magazine or any wealth magazine, like the supplements in the South China Morning Post."










Asia Art Archive is a great resource for insight on Asian art.








2. Do your homework




You've got no hope of collecting art if you don't know anything about what you're buying. That's where the Asia Art Archive comes in. Tucked inside a nondescript office tower on Hollywood Road, on a dreary strip of tacky decorative art galleries and dubious antique shops, the AAA is Asia's leading resource for information on contemporary Asian art. Researchers stationed across the continent gather information on new artists, exhibitions and trends -- and make all of it available in the AAA's library, which is open to the public.
"The people who use this will be students, curators and researchers," says Phoebe Wong, the AAA's head of research. "Interestingly enough," she adds, "not many artists use our facility -- they don't like to look at other artists' work." For buyers, the AAA is yet another advantage of Hong Kong's increasingly well-developed arts infrastructure. "Hong Kong has a lot of potential," says Wong. "People say that the Hong Kong Art Fair is now better than the Shanghai Contemporary, and Hong Kong is a better place for buying and selling because of taxation and things like that."




When it comes to money, Hong Kong really is a great place to buy art, simply because there are no limits on the value of what you can bring into or take out of the city. If you buy a painting on the mainland, by contrast, you might be stuck paying a 40 percent duty on your purchase. That's one of the reasons the big auction houses have set up shop in Hong Kong.











Really fall in love with your investment.








3. Bide your time




Auction houses are to art what Wal-Mart is to shopping: convenient and easy, but lacking the personal touch. Batten advises a slow-and-steady approach to art buying. "The great collections have always been by people who have a vision and who say I have 20 years to do this and I'm going to do it my way," he says. "You don't need to go out one weekend and buy lots of art." Find a gallery you like and build a relationship with it, he says. The gallery will come to know your tastes and will let you know when there's an opportunity you don't want to miss.










Hong Kong International Art Fair, May 27-30, 2010.










4. Visit the Art Fair








"In the West, there's a sense of art fair fatigue," says Renfrew. So heads are turning to Asia for something different. The Hong Kong International Art Fair's third edition will be its largest yet, bringing together art from across Asia with some of the top galleries in the world, including New York's White Cube and London's Gagosian Gallery.
Renfrew has tried hard to make the fair accessible, too, by convincing often skeptical galleries to install informational plaques and to make sure their offerings represent the full spectrum of prices, "from US$1,000 to US$10 million," he says. The AAA has been invited to host Backroom Conversations, a series of discussions and educational workshops on art.




"It's important that people buying art engage with it properly," says Renfrew. "It's best to buy something for love rather than money, but if you're buying for money, do your research. You'll start to learn about art because you have to think about it critically."