Cui Ruzhuo's landscapes have consistently commanded the highest prices at Hong Kong auctions. Poly Auction Hong Kong sold Rain in the Autumn for HK$142 million in this spring. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Broadening horizons

As more mainland auction houses pop up against the Hong Kong skyline, dipping into a common pool of buyers, one wonders if there's enough in terms of art and capital to sustain the current spate of energetic buying and selling in the long run.

"If there is anywhere in the world where there is a volume of collectors with the capacity to absorb a lot of art, I certainly think Hong Kong is one of those," says Edward Wilkinson, executive director of Bonhams Asia, "because you got two massive populations, Chinese and Indian, sitting on Hong Kong's doorstep, not to mention the rest of Southeast Asia."

He believes Hong Kong today is an evolved marketplace.

"Today the community of buyers is far more informed than to go for something just because the words Qing or Ming was being mentioned," says Wilkinson.

"The presence of Chinese mainland auction houses in Hong Kong is a very positive thing for the market because it certainly gives a clear indication that Hong Kong is a preferred city to conduct transactions in terms of the legal apparatus that's in place, the (prevailing) rule of law and people having a feeling of safety and satisfaction," he adds.

Like Chang of Poly and Wilson of China Guardian, Wilkinson too thinks the way forward for auction houses doing business in the SAR is to look beyond art from Chinese mainland.

"I am interested in seeing greater representation from say the Indian subcontinent, or antiquities from Southeast Asia, all of which are barely represented here. For me that's an interesting space that has potential."