customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

summary

updatedDate

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Annie Cheung

A high-end international art gallery has announced that it is closing its physical space in Hong Kong because of a change in client behaviour.
Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei, which has shown works by Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne since opening its gallery on the ground floor of Central’s St. George’s Building in 2019, will not renew its lease when it expires at the end of 2024 and has no plan to reopen elsewhere in the region.
“As the market continues to mature and Asian collectors have become increasingly global in their scope, we embrace this opportunity to optimally serve our client base and maintain strong relationships with key collectors and institutions,” said Rebecca Wei, the gallery’s partner in charge of Asia, in a statement.
Earlier, Wei told the Financial Times, which first reported the news, that her clients had retained the pandemic-era model of “long-distance purchasing”, and that the current slowdown in the art market had led galleries to reassess their operations.

She said she had around 50 clients in the region and that they bought artworks priced above US$30 million on average. She will continue to represent the gallery in Hong Kong after the St. George’s Building space closes.
The news follows a sharp decline in the value of art sold through Hong Kong auctions in the first half of the year. According to research firm ArtTactic, the flagship evening sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips this spring yielded 40 per cent less in total compared with a year ago.
At the same time, international galleries are now choosing to open new outposts in Asia in places such as Seoul and Tokyo instead of Hong Kong, which continues to be one of the most expensive cities in the world despite its current economic malaise, and has not seen a major new international gallery arrive since its years of pandemic isolation.
However, some of LGD&W’s peers maintain that it is still important to keep a physical presence in the city, just as Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the two auction houses, are about to unveil their new spaces in the heart of the Central business district later this year.
“Since [LGD&W] is not a member of the HKAGA [Hong Kong Art Gallery Association] we cannot really respond to their gallery operations,” says Amanda Hon, managing director of Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and co-president of the HKAGA, which represents 59 galleries.
“But clients who work with our member galleries still like to see artworks in person. Seeing an exhibition is like going to a live concert, and seeing artworks from a PDF is like listening on Spotify.”

Alice Lung, Asia partner at Perrotin, the French-owned gallery with an atelier in K11 Musea, says she still believes in the gallery model and will continue to do shows in Hong Kong.
“A PDF preview can never replace a gallery show. People are tired of online viewing rooms and PDFs. Seeing is believing. To experience the artwork in real life brings tremendous joy to the viewer, and that empirical experience could be amplified with a conversation with the artist and the gallerist.”
The economic challenges are real though, she says. Rising exhibition production costs and shipping costs make it more difficult for emerging artists, whose works sell for less, to have overseas shows.
“In the same vein, buyers’ behaviour has also changed as they are becoming more sensitive to the higher costs for shipping and maintaining a collection; hence, they are more cautious and reserved when buying,” she says.
That is precisely why it has become more important for the clients to see works in person, she adds.
Hong Kong remains a very important market for the gallery and its artists
Lehmann Maupin representative
According to real estate service company JLL, office vacancy space in Hong Kong was at a record high in June and office rent in Central fell 7.1 per cent in the first half of the year, the sharpest in all districts.
Despite the fall, international galleries that closed their branches in Hong Kong previously have yet to make a return. In 2020, Lehmann Maupin closed its space in Pedder Building and has since expanded its gallery in Seoul.
“Hong Kong remains a very important market for the gallery and its artists, and the gallery is currently in the process of exploring other ways that it can continue to maintain a strong presence in the city,” a Lehmann Maupin representative says.


The St Regis Venice offers a fresh, modern take on the city’s palazzo hotels

5 music and arts events in Hong Kong this weekend September 6-8, from K-pop to Gypsy swing

How The Grand Budapest Hotel inspired this Hong Kong design studio to think about narratives and nostalgia

Mao artist Gao Zhen held under Chinese law against defaming revolutionary ‘heroes’

High-end gallery closure in Hong Kong raises questions over state of city’s art market

The exterior of Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei, photographed under an old name, in Central, in 2020. Photo: Google Maps

The exterior of Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei, photographed under an old name, in Central, in 2020. News of the gallery’s closure at the end of 2024 has raised questions over the future of Hong Kong’s art market. Photo: Google Maps

Rebecca Wei is Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei’s partner in charge of Asia. Photo: Rebecca Wei

Amanda Hon is managing director of Ben Brown Fine Arts in Hong Kong and co-president of the HKAGA.

From the Pope to Macron, world leaders’ apologies compiled for artist’s Hong Kong show

Pope Francis apologising for sexual abuse by Catholic Church figures of authority, as shown in James T. Hong’s video compilation of world leaders saying sorry, Apologies, now showing in Hong Kong. Photo: Edmond So

James T. Hong at Empty Gallery in Hong Kong, where he is showing his solo exhibition. Photo: Mabel Lui

Hong’s video piece Apologies runs for seven hours and seven minutes. Photo: Edmond So

Hong doesn’t think much of the apologies his exhibition showcases; he believes they’re mostly hollow rhetoric from politicians seeking to gain political capital. Photo: Edmond So

One of the four sculptures in Hong’s “Stabbed in the Back” series on show at his Hong Kong exhibition. Photo: Mabel Lui

My tour of Shanghai’s ‘very gay’ art scene with Russell Tovey, Talk Art podcast host

LGBTQ British actor Russell Tovey at the David Hockney exhibition he co-curated at Shanghai’s Modern Art Museum. Photo: MAM

Writer Cheung Hok-hang (centre) with Russell Tovey (left) and Shanghai art writer Lisa Movius in a taxi tour of Shanghai’s art hotspots. Photo: Cheung Hok-hang

Tovey addresses visitors at the opening of David Hockney: Paper Trails, an exhibition he co-curated at Shanghai’s Modern Art Museum. Photo: Cheung Hok-hang

An Image of Celia, State I (left), a lithograph on paper made by Hockney in 1986, and a signed digital print of Matelot Kevin Druez 2 (2009), on show at David Hockney: Paper Trails. Photo: MAM

The writer (left) with Russell Tovey (right) and art economist Richard Zhang in front of fibre artist Shi Hui’s work Frozen Wind (2004), at Shanghai’s Bank/Mabsociety Art Gallery during an art tour of the city. Photo: Cheung Hok-hang

‘Crip art’: disabled artists get new Hong Kong platform, sparked by shocking job interview

Installation and performance artist Yeung Siu-fong paints using her foot at the c.95d8 art collective’s village house in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Photo: c.95d8

Installation and performance artist Yeung Siu-fong paints using her foot at the c.95d8 art collective’s village house in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. The collective’s “crip art” platform is helping bring disabled artists’ experiences to the public arena. Photo: c.95d8

Art collective c.95d8 founders (from left) Thisby Cheng, Yeung Siu-fong and Bomb Lam at Para Site in Quarry Bay. Photo: Sun Yeung

Yeung Siu-fong performs at the launch of the “Love+: Awakenings” exhibition at Pao Galleries, at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, on November 16, 2022. The performance required Yeung to pull herself from a body suit that was glued to a piece of plywood.

Yeung performs a work titled Balance. Photo: Jill Wong

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Business

Companies

News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong economy

Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei’s decision comes as other international galleries open new outposts in places like Seoul and Tokyo and not Hong Kong


Lévy Gorvy Dayan & Wei’s decision to close its space in Central at the end of 2024 comes as other international galleries open new outposts in places such as Seoul and Tokyo instead of Hong Kong.


Auctions