Christie’s opens its new central Beijing flagship location on 15 October with an exhibition on Pablo Picasso and his relationship to the Chinese artists Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi. Housing the auction house’s offices as well as areas for public events and exhibitions, it is Christie’s second venue in mainland China, joining its Shanghai branch which opened in October 2014 in the heritage Ampire Building.
Christie’s does not currently hold auctions in Beijing, although its license permits it to, says Christie’s Asia president Rebecca Wei. “The scope [of sales in China] is limited to post-1949 work, so it is a small business, but we are trying to bring more Western art into China,” she adds. Having a base in the Chinese capital rather allows the auction house “to communicate with the government officials, because the centralised cultural relics departments are all in Beijing… and it is the center of the auction business in China.”
Although Christie’s Shanghai and Beijing operations are similarly sized, Wei says, “in Shanghai we have our [wholly owned foreign enterprise] license and our auctions”. The next sales in Shanghai, of 20th-century and contemporary works, take place on 22 October. She also notes a difference in the nature of art scenes in the two cities. “Beijing is more traditional, and Shanghai is quite contemporary.”
Wei describes the second tier cities of Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Fuzhou and Chengdu as “all very attractive” possibilities for further expansion in coming years.
The 800 sq. m three-storey Beijing flagship replaces Christie’s offices in the CITIC Building, where it has operated since 1996. Newly built but in a classical style, it is located at 82 Jinbao Jie, 1.8km east of the Beijing Palace Museum, and situated between the upscale Jinbao Mall and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Beijing. “It is a very nice location, the district has culture and a long history, going back 100 years,” Wei says, “and the building has the Christie’s look. We fell in love with the building.”