Sotheby’s inaugurated its first retail store in Hong Kong on July 27th. The Sotheby’s Maison is located at the Landmark Chater shopping center in the city’s luxury district, a space boasting foot traffic of more than 1.3 million visitors per month.
“We envision for this state-of-the-art space in Hong Kong to be the epicenter of culture for global visitors—a destination where generations of art and culture enthusiasts come to engage with and be inspired by extraordinary objects and experiences,” said Nathan Drahi, managing director of Sotheby’s Asia.
The 24,000-square-foot retail space spans two floors, featuring museum-quality exhibitions on the ground floor and the Sotheby’s Salon retail experience on the upper level. The ground floor offers visitors an immersive experience with a diverse array of exhibitions. Highlights include a showcase of Buddhist sculpture titled “Bodhi: Masterpieces of Monumental Buddhist Art” and “Ice: Two Masterpieces on Loan from the Long Museum,” both on view until September 11th. The latter features Gerhard Richter’s Eisberg (1982) alongside a valuable Ru ware brush washer, which Sotheby’s claims is “arguably the rarest and most valuable Chinese ceramic ever produced.” Moreover, Banksy’s infamous shredded artwork, Girl Without Balloon (2021) (previously titled Love is in the Bin), is slated to be on display at an unspecified date.
Upstairs, the Sotheby’s Salon provides a curated selection of items across 20 categories, catering to the interests of various collectors. The items publicly for sale are priced from HK$5,000 to HK$50 million ($640 to $6.4 million).
Nicholas Chow, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, described the new space as designed to broaden visitor curiosity and imagination. Its offerings include dinosaur fossils, handbags, contemporary African furniture, Italian Old Master drawings, and more. The diverse collection also includes rare movie posters, Picasso ceramics, Korean crafts, vintage watches, and other unique artifacts, aiming to attract both established collectors and new audiences. “There will be something here to inspire and engage both our existing collectors and new audiences alike,” he noted.
Anticipated events scheduled for later this year include an exhibition for Sotheby’s modern and contemporary art auctions in September and a series of luxury and Asian art auctions in October.
