Hong Kong is gearing up for another busy week with Christie’s 20^th Century and Contemporary Asian art evening sale coming up on May 26^th. The auction house is expecting sky-high sales with blockbuster works such as Zhang Xiaogang’s  family portrait from his “Bloodline” series estimated at 1.6 – 2.3 million USD and Zeng Fanzhi’s Fly (shown above) with a 2.6 – 3.2 million USD estimate. Other sale highlights include works by contemporary favorites Yang Shaobin, Cao Guo-Qiang,  Suh Do-Ho and Ronald Ventura.

All eyes seem to be fixed on Hong Kong especially since ART HK reported a record 67,205 visitors to their annual fair and Sotheby’s just opened its new 15,000 square foot gallery space with Yayoi Kusama’s Hong Kong Blooms in My Mind exhibition.

Expectations of Hong Kong’s art market are high and many are questioning its sustainability. Michael Frahm, an art adviser based in London spoke with Reuters regarding the state of Hong Kong’s market:

“They have to rely on the Asian market to be the ones who are buying here, and I am not sure that the Asian market is quite yet there to absorb this kind of material,” said Michael Frahm, director of Frahm Ltd and an art adviser based in London.

While Chinese buyers make up over 40 percent of the global auction market they have not been buying from individual galleries, said Frahm, adding that it will take a lot of hard work to get to know the collector base and know the scene. [...]

“There are a lot of people interested, but it’s very early stages in that people are still very insecure in terms of what they are buying,” Frahm said.

Dealers agree that in the long run Hong Kong is a good market to invest in but don’t expect the growth to remain as robust as it has been.