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“This doesn’t feel like the First Choice VIP day but more like a public day,” said one fair-goer among the crowded aisles of Art Basel Hong Kong on Wednesday. Asia’s biggest art fair, held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, drew a wide-ranging crowd, from top collectors and industry players to celebrities and art enthusiasts who could score a coveted first-day invitation. By around 3 p.m. local time, long lines were still forming outside. Inside Hall 1, where the international blue-chip galleries are concentrated, the aisles were at times nearly impassable.
Marc Payot, president of Hauser and Wirth, was impressed by the attendance, especially the quality of collectors. “What matters is long-term engagement—building relationships, not just transactions,” he said, adding that there had been strong engagement from “serious collectors” already. But he noted that a major Louise Bourgeois the gallery brought last year took nine months to place, though the initial conversation began at the fair.
Despite the crowds this year, and some early sales in the million-dollar range, many dealers on the ground described a market that is no longer driven by first-day urgency, with collectors taking a more deliberate approach to buying. The shift comes as Hong Kong’s auction market continues to contract and geopolitical tensions—from the Middle East to mainland China—reshape global art trade dynamics, even as the city maintains its status as Asia’s key market hub.
London-based artist Sougwen Chung’s RECURSIONS on view at the Asia debut of Zero 10 at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026. Photo: Li Zhihua/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images.
Among the top sales during the fair’s VIP day was Pablo Picasso’s Le peintre et son modèle (1964), which sold at Bastian for approximately €3.5 million ($4 million). David Zwirner sold a large-scale 2006 painting by Chinese artist Liu Ye for $3.8 million and a 2002 work by Marlene Dumas for $3.5 million. Hauser and Wirth placed Bourgeois’s À Baudelaire (#1) from 2008 for $2.95 million and George Condo’s Prismatic Head (2021) for $2.3 million. White Cube moved Tracey Emin’sTake Me to Heaven (2024) for £1.2 million ($1.6 million). Waddington Custot placed works by Zao Wou-Ki (priced at $2.8 million) and Chu Teh-Chun (priced at $1.3 million). Most of the sales reported throughout the day were within the five to six-figure range, with many more still to be confirmed throughout the run of the event.
A more measured pace of deal-making is no longer resisted but expected. “Collectors are considered in their approach,” said Dawn Zhu, a director at Thaddaeus Ropac.
A Market Under Pressure
Ahead of Art Basel Hong Kong and major auctions in the city this week, several art market studies, including the recent Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report, noted an ongoing contraction in business there. The latest figures from the Artnet Price Database are even more worrying.
Hong Kong’s annual auction totals have been on a downward slope since they peaked five years ago at $1.8 billion. Unlike New York and London, which saw growth in 2025, the city’s auction sales fell to a decade low of $715 million—down 20 percent year over year and more than 60 percent from 2021. Hong Kong’s total even fell below Paris’s $854 million for the first time, dropping the city to fourth place in global rankings.
Rahul Kadakia, the newly appointed Christie’s president, Asia Pacific, auctioning Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme on September 26, 2025 in Hong Kong. Courtesy of Christie’s.
The wheel of fortune may nevertheless spin in Hong Kong’s favor this month. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has “both risks and opportunities” for the city, its leader, Chief Executive John Lee, said at a press conference last week. He made the case that Hong Kong remains an ideal spot for those seeking diversification and security in their investments.
The U.S.-Israel war on Iran has resulted in more than 1,500 deaths across the region since its start on February 28. Art commerce seems a trivial matter amid such violence. Yet the conflict has had a knock-on effect on the industry. Art Dubai recently postponed its 20th edition by a month, to mid-May, hoping that it will be possible to stage a fair then, as global shipping and travel disruptions continue.
Visitors take in artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) on March 25, 2026 in Hong Kong, China. Photo: Li Zhihua/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images.
Surging fuel costs could put additional pressure on international dealers in Hong Kong this week. While many of the works for the fair were shipped far enough in advance to avoid delays, Jared Muscato, director of commercial operations at the New York–based art logistics specialist Dietl International Services, said costs of return shipments from Hong Kong to the U.S. after the fair would go up by approximately 50 percent amid reduced capacity of flights and rising fuel costs due to war in Iran. Return shipment costs to Europe could be doubled.
“We shipped everything in advance, and for works that sell, many will remain in Hong Kong,” said Henna Kapadia, director of Mumbai’s Tarq. “We also work closely with shipping partners who can hold and manage the works if needed.”
Taro Nasu’s booth at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026. Courtesy of Art Basel.
Greater Regional Focus
Still, for the most part, it seemed to be business as usual in Hong Kong this week, with the typical bevy of openings and VIP dinners on the calendar. In addition to Art Basel, there are six satellite fairs or fair alternatives: Art Central, the debut Pavilion Hong Kong, ArtHouse Tai Hang, and the Edible Art Fair, as well as the Collect HK Art Fair and Check-in Side Space.
On Wednesday, the Hong Kong government announced a new agreement with Art Basel, securing the city as the fair’s exclusive Asia-Pacific host for the next five years. Henrietta Tsui-Leung, an art advisor and founder of the Hong Kong gallery Ora-Ora, which is exhibiting at Art Basel, said the city continues to draw clients from all over the region, despite the rise of the Gulf and other regional markets.
Still, this year’s ABHK exhibitor list reveals a subtle shift in the market. Its scale remains the same—240 galleries from 41 countries and territories, with more than half operating spaces in the Asia Pacific—but there is a notable absence of major Indian galleries and Thai galleries, which used to be regulars. East Asian galleries have a strong presence, but some longtime blue-chip participants are not returning. A few, like Blum, have closed, while others, like Acquavella and Bortolami, are sitting it out.
Ming Wong, In Love for the Mood (cinema billboard), 2009, on view at the booth of Ota Fine Arts at Art Basel Hong Kong 2026. Courtesy of Art Basel.
A greater regional focus is good news, according to some international dealers. Thaddaeus Ropac said that his gallery goes to Hong Kong “to reach people in Asia and specifically Hong Kong and mainland China.” While he has a sizable space in Seoul, Hong Kong allows him to meet a wide array of clients. “Asia is a very big region which has very different fabrics,” he said. The gallery sold several works in the five- to six-figure range during the early hours of the VIP preview, including a painting by Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth for €460,000 ($533,618) to a Chinese institution.
Tarq is among a handful of Indian galleries that have chosen to return to the Hong Kong fair. “We’ve been coming for several years now, so there’s a level of familiarity and continuity,” said Kapadia. “There is a broader regional mix of visitors.”
Lucy Liu, of New York’s Uffner and Liu, one of 33 first-time participants this year, said she’s been “eager to engage more deeply with audiences in Asia, and Hong Kong remains the most important converging point in the region.” The gallery is showing six artists, mostly Americans and some of Iranian descent. Six works each priced between $8,000 and $36,000 sold during the VIP preview to both Chinese and U.S. clients.
Hong Kong is holding its ground—for now.
Art Basel Hong Kong runs through Sunday, March 29 at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
This article was updated on March 30, 1:07 pm E.T.