Buying high-end art during a pandemic
Social distancing forces art collectors to purchase million-dollar artworks after viewing them only digitally
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Helmi Yusof
Singapore
COVID or no Covid, the high-end art market is determined to carry on. On Wednesday at 6pm, the celebrated Art Basel Hong Kong didn't open at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre as it has for years. The actual physical art fair had been cancelled after thousands of gallerists and collectors voiced concerns about flying to Hong Kong.
Instead, a virtual fair popped up online on Art Basel's website, where VIP collectors were given special access to view thousands of great artworks mostly priced between five and seven figures. And despite early technical glitches, buying activity soon picked up with hundreds of works snapped up instantly based on digital images alone.
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