A Day at the Auction House

HONG KONG - "It's not cheap. But these days, nothing is."


The words belonged to a Englishman, a man of around 40 dressed in an impeccable three-piece suit and one of those white ties that are very much in fashion over here. Next to him was an Asian female, around his age. They conversed in English, she had the same British accent as he. In his left hand, he carried an art catalog. Standing in the center of Christy's Auction House, they blended in perfectly.

My university is paying for this trip, but they're paying me nowhere near the amount of money to justify a trip to Christy's - one of the world's oldest and most respected auction houses. I arrived thanks to a happy accident.

I was on the hunt for an art gallery which my Lonely Planet guide suggested was near the Hong Kong Convention Centre. I wandered through the cavernous building - it appeared especially designed to make a person seem small. There were stores, halls and even a convenience store inside, but I could find no art gallery.

Christy's was on the way to the bus stop. I walked by the entrance oncem, then I turned around and walked by it again. Could I go in? The last auction house I was in was ten miles outside of Albany, and specialized in estate sales. After my freshman year in college, my friends and I would go there to look for cheap road signs to hang in our dorm rooms. I usually spent no more than $10 a night on cheap dinnerware and old road signs.

I'm sure I couldn't get within 100 meters of the Christy's in Manhattan, but here I just walked in. I was dressed in $5 Gap pants and a fake $3 polo shirt, and carried with a faded computer bag. Everything about me screamed: THIS MAN WILL NOT BUY EXPENSIVE ART. But I was let in without incident by an extremely friendly attendant.

Christy's is gorgeous. There is a free tea area in the front, where the live auctions are displayed on flat-screen televisions. The high bid is displayed in eight different currencies - helpful if you're representing a Swiss client with a hankering for Ming vases.

On display were the jewelry of Princess Margaret. The recently deceased sister of the Queen owned an extensive gallery of large diamonds, brooches and tiaras which was very impressive. There was also a preview of an art sale, where I saw several Picassos and even a Van Gogh. It was like a museum, but free and without crowds.

The auction house reflects Hong Kong today. The city is not - as I once suggested - a dying city. Any place where a single print can sell for a million dollars, is the only place in Asia where the royal jewels are displayed, and where dozens of smart-dressed men and women can afford to waste several hours on the middle of a Monday afternoon looking a fabulously expensive items, must be doing pretty well.