Asian buyers accounted for 31 percent of Christie's global auctions sales in 2021, the majority of whom were based in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. Buyers from Hong Kong and other cities within the GBA made up about two-thirds of that majority, Belin said.

Collectors in the Greater Bay Area are much younger on average than those in other markets such as Europe and the United States, he added. "We see collectors in their 30s … at a very serious level of collecting, extremely knowledgeable of art and extremely enthusiastic."

Belin also commented on the art-buying trend in the bay area, which has seen collectors embrace categories outside the more traditional Asian arts. "Interestingly, we see (a shift from) the very strong appeal of classic Chinese arts, Chinese paintings and Chinese works of art to modern and contemporary Chinese art. We also see that collecting pattern evolving toward Western arts and luxury goods such as jewelry, watches, handbags and wine," he said.

A silver lining of the pandemic, in Belin's opinion, is the acceleration in digital innovation for the ways in which art is presented and art transactions can occur at auctions. "An important example is the livestreaming that we have developed at a tremendous pace. … We had more than 12 million viewers for our auction last year."

Highlights of the auction house's digital experiments include the launch of a mini-program on WeChat, the omnipresent social media platform on the mainland. "The level of activity is phenomenal. The level of engagement is phenomenal, as you can imagine," Belin said.

"You can pretty much do everything you wish to do with Christie's. You can open an account, you can register for sale, you have access to the whole catalog of sales that are presented around the world, whether they are online sales or live auctions, you can browse through the sale … you can also now place bids in online sales."

In addition to WeChat, Christie's has also launched initiatives on Chinese social and e-commerce app Xiaohongshu. "We have over 100,000 followers and we have partnered with a lot of luxury brands already in a very short period of time," he said.

In the future, Belin said, the auction house is looking forward to a closer engagement with collectors within the bay area. "The first auction that we held this year confirms that the market is very vibrant and solid."

France-born Belin has had over a decade of experience working in Asia. "I've been in Asia since 2005. I spent most of my career in Asia, and a very big portion of it was in China. It's fascinating to see the speed at which everything has developed and changed and all the opportunities that we have."