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In one gallery hangs a Picasso portrait of Dora Maar, a bold primary-colour work of abstract genius. In the next, delicate inks by Chinese traditionalist Qi Baishi speak of tranquil landscapes.
As a collection of work, they couldn't be more different but both -- along with dozens more pieces from China and Europe -- have been brought together in a series of Hong Kong art exhibitions and auctions expected to cement Asia's place in the top flight of the art-buying world.
Not only are the region's art buyers now ranked among the most important in the world, its artists are also beginning to acquire a reputation that is driving worldwide demand for their work.
"The Asian market is maturing incredibly quickly," says David Norman, head of impressionists at global auction giant Sotheby's.
"And this doesn't look like it will be a bubble -- Asians are buying not just as financial investments, they are buying because they appreciate the art," Norman adds. "That's the best sort of buyer."
Both Sotheby's and rival Christie's have made permanent homes in Hong Kong, which has become the focus of the region's burgeoning art market.
Buyers from around Asia, although mostly from China, Taiwan and Japan, gather for the two houses' biannual auctions here, which over the past couple of years have concentrated on Asian -- especially Chinese -- items.
"Hong Kong is a magnet for the Asian art world," says Guy Bennett, senior vice-president and head of evening sales for Christie's. "We used to concentrate on Tokyo, but the focus has moved to Hong Kong."
Sotheby's Hong Kong spring sale, which kicked off Friday, illustrates the wealth of supply in the region.
A group of 58 modern Chinese pieces from the collection of famed Chinese art dealer Robert Chang makes up the core of an estimated 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars (217 million US dollars) worth of lots about to go under the hammer.
The four-day sale is so big it has had to be housed for the first time in the cavernous Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
As well as the Chang collection there are pieces by lesser-known artists such as Zhang Daqian and Li Keran as well as a selection of Chinese jewellery and watches.
All items have price tags of 100,000 US dollars and up.
"Hong Kong is the new third leg in the world art market -- after New York and London," says Henry Howard-Sneyd, Sotheby's director for China and Southeast Asia.
Demand for Chinese art has exploded in recent years.
Sotheby's first ever auction of contemporary Chinese art at its New York rooms earlier this month fetched almost 13 million dollars, including 979,200 dollars paid by an anonymous bidder for "Bloodline Series: Comrade No. 120" (1998), a portrait by Zhang Xiaogang.
And last summer, a sale of Chinese ceramics and paintings in Hong Kong fetched a record 81 million dollars for the venerable house.
Prices for Asian art are well short of the dizzy heights asked for top European works -- Picasso's "Boy With a Pipe" holds the record for art bought at auction at 104 million dollars.
But growing global interest is pushing their value steadily higher.
"The market is a nascent one but prices have appreciated in a very short space of time," says Howard-Sneyd.
Running concurrently with the Chinese art sale are exhibitions at both houses' Hong Kong rooms that preview their upcoming New York auctions of impressionist and modernist art.
As well as the Picasso at Sotheby's, two pieces by the Spanish master are on offer at rival Christie's along with a magnificent Van Gogh, "L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux". Each piece is expected to fetch in the region of 50 million dollars.
Christie's Bennett says that while Asia hasn't the huge number of big buyers like the US or Russia -- the biggest art collectors -- it does have a growing number of educated investors.
Neither auction house offers data on the size of the Asian market and both keep their buyers' identities confidential, but most Asian buyers are believed to be industrialists and tycoons.
Very few are art investors and so far art-buying investment funds have yet to make their presence felt in the region, says Howard-Sneyd.
Exhibitions like those currently being held in the city are hoped to foster greater interest among them.
"Asian buyers are relatively new to the market and new entrants usually bid for items that are contemporary and from their own region," says Bennett.
"But we have found already that Asians are migrating into the traditional art markets and buying European works.
"An element of it is investment driven but our research has found that most of it is from incredibly wealthy people who have done their homework and have become incredibly sophisticated buyers in a short space of time," Bennett says. mmc/nw
AFPLifestyle-HongKong-art
AFP 081216 GMT 04 06
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