Phillips CEO bullish on Hong Kong, Korean art scenes

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Phillips CEO bullish on Hong Kong, Korean art scenes

Published: 26 Mar. 2023, 17:29 Updated: 26 Mar. 2023, 19:29

The gallery of the art auction house Phillips's new Asian headquarters in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District. [PHILLIPS]

HONG KONG — Phillips, one of the world’s leading art auction houses, expanded and relocated its Asian headquarters in Hong Kong right next to the city’s new art destination, M+ museum, in West Kowloon Cultural District last week. Phillips CEO Stephen Brooks said that Hong Kong “is going to continue to flourish as an art hub," despite concerns about the recent change in its political atmosphere, in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily.

Regarding Seoul, which is emerging as a rival of Hong Kong, he said the Korean art scene "is really developing very quickly," calling it "one of the growth areas that you're going to see developing over the course of the next few years.” However, he also expressed his unwavering confidence in Hong Kong as an Asian art hub.

Phillips, founded in London in 1796 and regarded as one of the world's top three art auction houses alongside Christie's and Sotheby's, opened on March 18 its new Asia headquarters right next to M+. The building was designed by renowned Swiss architects team Herzog & de Meuron, who also designed M+.

M+, regarded as Hong Kong's first-ever full-scale contemporary art museum and which also encompasses architecture, design and film, held an open house for visitors from all over the world last Monday. The event took place more than one year after the official opening of the museum in November 2021 because pandemic restrictions had made it difficult for visitors from overseas to come here. The auction house Phillips also held an open house that day.

The schedule was intended to accommodate international visitors to Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, which ran from Tuesday to Saturday. It was the first in-person Hong Kong edition of the world’s biggest art fair since the breakout of Covid-19 in 2020. However, some viewers say that the atmosphere at Art Basel Hong Kong is not what it used to be. While the pandemic is over, the "Sinicization" of Hong Kong following the implementation of the national security law and the crackdown on protests in 2020, as well as the intensification of U.S.-China tensions, has led to a decline in Western participation, they say.

Against this backdrop, it might be an unexpected move for Phillips to open a new, expanded Asia headquarters in Hong Kong, where it has operated since 2015. The Korea JoongAng Daily sat with the auction house’s CEO Brooks on the open house day of the headquarters. Here are excerpts from the interview.

Phillips CEO Stephen Brooks at the opening of the auction house's new Asian headquarters in Hong Kong's West Kowloon Cultural District on March 18. [PHILLIPS]

Does Phillips' decision to open its extended Asian headquarters right next to M+ reflect a belief that Hong Kong will maintain its status as an Asian art hub in the future? Given the current political atmosphere in Hong Kong, aren’t you concerned that art trading might face an abrupt tightening of regulations, or that art exhibitions might face censorship?

I am a huge fan of Hong Kong. It has Eastern cultural heritage married with Western history and they create this kind of cultural vibrancy, which I think is unique. And it's got a free port status, low taxation and an infrastructure which is reliable and strong, as well as an international gallery network here. Geographically, it's centered in the heart of Asia on the doorstep of Greater China, the second biggest art market in the world.

We began the conversations about this building about five years ago and we've seen that through because we absolutely believe that it will be a hub for our Asian headquarters.

The creative atmosphere for the last few years has been difficult. The Covid-19 period was difficult and the art markets saw a little bit of a contraction during the early part of the pandemic period but then came back very strong. Now it feels very buzzy. And I haven't really seen any [negative] effect on the creativity. I haven't seen any evidence of that. It's not something I'm unduly concerned about at the moment as we've seen a vibrancy in the art market here for a very long time.

Yoshitomo Nara’s "Lookin' for a Treasure" to be offered as the Star Lot of the Inaugural Sale at Phillips's new Asian Headquarters in the Hong Kong Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art on March 30.[PHILLIPS]

You also seem to have decided to expand the Asian headquarters in Hong Kong because Phillips has been very successful here. What is the secret to your rapid growth? I heard that Phillips features more young artists than rival auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby’s. Is that a factor?

In the six or seven years we've quadrupled in size, maybe even five times bigger than we were in 2015 or 2016. And that process has involved us expanding globally. We only started in Asia in 2015. For a 227-year-old company, we've only been in Asia for eight years.

I think it's growing very fast for a number of different reasons. We've been hiring into Phillips the very best specialists that exist in the market, and we've been very precise in where we focused our attention. Some of the other auction houses are very broad in offering to the marketplace; when I was at Christie’s, we had 65 different categories. On the other hand, Phillips focuses on categories which are the fastest moving within the art market and that's allowed us to be really nimble and respond to what's going on in the marketplace.

We are strong particularly in 20th-century and contemporary art, including the most cutting-edge art that's just been painted very recently. We're known for being groundbreaking, for bringing new artists to the auction market. Last year, we brought 150 new artists into the auction world. We are also known for talking to a younger audience. In Asia, 40 percent of clients buying in our auctions are under-40 millennials.

We focus on price points of around $50,000 up to probably one million dollars, which gets extended to two or three on occasion. That price point is where we've done particularly well and where we've been growing very, very fast.

But I wouldn't say that's the total story. We have over the years expanded to be covering the masterpiece level. We sold the painting “Untitled” by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) for $85 million in New York. [It was the highest value lot in the history of Phillips] It was sold to an Asian collector.

About 35 percent of our overall business is to Asian collectors. Of that 35 percent, about 70 percent is to Greater China. So, Greater China is very important.

A Patek Philippe watch, from the collection of China's last emperor Aisin-Giro Puyi [PHILLIPS]

Recently, Phillips made headlines as it will sell a rare 1929 Patek Philippe Calatrava once owned by Puyi, the last emperor of China, later this year. Is Phillips the No.1 auction house for watches, as I've heard?

Yes, that's because of the sheer quality of the team and their connections in the watch arena and the whole market. They've got respect amongst the watch professionals. They have an ability to pull in consignments at the right price and then perform extremely well in auction. Our every single watch auction for the last two years has been white gloves. When every lot in an auction successfully sells, it’s called a white gloves auction. And watches, as a market, have been a strong market for the last few years.

The Korean art market experienced an unprecedented boom in the last two years. However, critics say the market is still too small and narrow to become an Asian art hub. What do you think? What are the strong and weak points of the Korean art market?

Well, I can't say that I'm well placed to comment on the weak point of the Korean art market. But I can say that the Korean art scene is really developing very quickly. There's an infrastructure developed and there are quality galleries. That particular art scene is one of the growth areas that you're going to see developing over the course of the next few years. Robert Manley, our global co-head of contemporary art, has been going to Korea for 25 years, because Korea has always been identified as having this enormous potential, and this last couple of years, that's started to be really realized. I was there in Frieze Seoul last year and I observed it getting stronger.

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [moon.soyoung@joongang.co.kr]