By Mary Henderson
Despite the turmoil over tensions regarding tariffs, inflation, and geopolitical conflict, the Asian art market thrived in 2025. Since the financial crisis of 2008, Asian economies have been credited for supporting, and at times rescuing, the global art market. Unlike traditional financial markets with daily price fluctuations, art markets operate through a complex and interconnected system of irregular auction cycles, gallery sales, and private transactions.
China and Hong Kong saw a strong post-pandemic revival, with China’s market surging to become the world’s second-largest. With its strong financial infrastructure and favourable tax policies, Hong Kong has become a hub for art traders looking for a cultural bridge between East and West, seeing heavy investment from international auction houses, galleries, and art fairs. South Korea, Singapore, and Japan too have emerged as cultural and commercial centres, particularly attractive to investment due to their more neutral political status within Asian regional dynamics.
This has not come easily, as auction prices fell by 38 per cent in mainland China and Hong Kong in 2024, reflecting a wider decline in top lot pricing felt by international auction houses. As dealer sales have remained steady, this indicates a move by collectors towards relationship-based transactions and less speculative buying. Global trade across industries suffered with the announcement of tariffs and trade controls by the US complicating cross-border transactions. While the US, China and the UK accounted for 58 percent of the value of global imports of art and antiques in 2024, this has gone down by 5 percent year-on-year, being their lowest share in twenty-five years. Business confidence and investment inclination suffered, affecting market volatility, global pricing and supply. While some fine artworks were exempt from tariffs, certain goods including antiques, design pieces and artworks from regions including China were not.
The market settled in 2025, focusing more on depth and durability. This has seen a pivot towards more traditional western nineteenth and twentieth century artists by Asia’s top art collectors. At 27 per cent, Asia holds a higher share of billionaire wealth than Europe, with the majority held in China, Hong Kong and India meaning they can collect to the very highest level. With art business down globally, pivoting to areas such as Singapore is appealing amidst wealth migration, desire for access to the wider southeast Asian region, and the convenience of a facilitatory attitude towards business. Confidence in recovery can be seen in how the four major auction houses have all moved into new flagship Asia showrooms over the past two years.
Christies reported that in 2024, Asia Pacific buyers contributed 26 per cent to its global auction sales, including some significant sales of works by van Gogh and Monet that priced above HK$200million. Singapore has seen import values rise by 74 percent, while Japan saw its values double to just over $1.1billion. Mainland China and Hong Kong were net importers, continuing to remain key buyers in the industry as they increase the number of art and antiques in their domestic markets. The highlight of recent auctions was Klimt’s last great portrait, Dame mit Fächer, 1918 which eventually sold after a bidding war for $108.4million to a Hong Kong-based collector.
As safer long-term investment options amidst tightening liquidity, collecting interests amongst Asian collectors has diversified away from focusing on the art and antiquities of their own regions or speculative contemporary works towards masterworks by established, often western, artists.
A strong middle market ($50,000-$1million) has also emerged, attracting more young collectors. The Art Market Report 2025 found that 44 per cent of bidders or buyers at Christies in Asia were millennials or younger. With intergenerational shifts connected to the Great Wealth Transfer, $84 trillion is predicted to exchange hands in the next two decades, resulting in a new generation of buyers with new tastes. This has created new opportunities for local and emerging artists, with a number of new Asian names emerging on the international art market stage as young Gen-Z buyers seem more inclined to purchase works by artists of their own generation.
Asian art markets have also been particularly open to adapting to the new digital age. Hong Kong’s embrace of digital art, including NFTs, has given it a significant regional edge. Favouring online auctions, digital art and work from emerging artists, these collectors have shifted the art market into the digital, with the online art market projected to grow to $17.7billion by 2030. Auction houses have responded by increasing their digital presence, livestreaming sales and online bids through platforms like WeChat, which received a record high of 60million views on its livestreams in 2023. In 2024, online-only transitions in the art market were estimated at $10.5 billion, nearly 76 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels. Of these sales, the majority were made below $50,000, demonstrating a wider global trend of higher volumes of transactions at lower price levels, appealing to younger or new entrants.
The increasing influence and diverse portfolios of Asian collectors, institutions and markets on the global art scene therefore presents a fundamental structural shift of the established hierarchies of prestige, fostering opportunities for new collectors, fresh artistic perspectives and increased dialogue in an increasingly polarised international landscape.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and may not reflect the opinions of The St Andrews Economist.
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