Hong Kong, 29 May 2012
Steven Murphy, CEO of auction House Christie’s, has outlined the company’s plans for expansion and growth in the Asian market, and expressed his confidence in the art market, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
During the interview, Murphy, who was present in Hong Kong for Christie’s Spring sales in the city, described the art market as “very resilient”, despite the on-going global economic turmoil. He went on to describe how the use of the internet is allowing Asian buyers to participate in live auctions going on in London, New York, and Paris, resulting in positive results in these cities.
Murphy made known Christie’s plans to expand and grow into the Asian art market, stating that the number of people employed by Christie’s Asia has grown by 50% over the past two years, and that the company hopes to increase this figure by another 50% over the coming two years, predicting that in a “fairly short time, the Asian market will be a third of Christie’s overall business”. He stated that the auction-giant no longer simply saw the Asian market simply as a single unit, but that the company would be looking to take the many “idiosyncratic” opportunities presented by each of the separate markets within Asia: Japan, Korea, Philippines, China, etc.
In a separate article published on the website of The Art Market Monitor, Murphy is cited as having expressed a belief that the art market is no longer cyclical. Murphy then went on to state that the art market continues to see new buyers and collectors join it, while retaining clients too.
Christie’s private sales grew by 50% last year, and the company expects to see them grow by 20% this year. It is believed that private sales will become more important as sales under the value of $1 million increasingly take place on line.