Sotheby's bets on Chinese spending with Hong Kong retail outlet

By Clare Jim

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Sotheby's embarks on a new kind of selling in Hong Kong on Saturday, with its first retail outlet, stocking anything from collectable trainers to dinosaur fossils, with prices starting at several hundred dollars.

Luxury spending has fallen in China, as the country's economy struggles with a downturn in property and capital markets, eating into the sales of companies such as LVMH.

But Sotheby's said it was confident in Chinese spending for the long term.

The company's new space in Hong Kong's Central financial district will display hundreds of objects. Apart from paintings and other pieces of art typically associated with auction houses, they include books, furniture, Nike x Louis Vuitton crossover sneakers and dinosaur fossils. Prices are from HK$5,000 to HK$50 million ($640.6-$6.41 million).

The retail section will occupy one floor of Sotheby's new 24,000 square feet (2,230 sqm) premises, while another floor will be for exhibitions.

Sotheby's said it plans to open similar outlets in New York and Paris in the coming months, following on from its pioneering outlet in Hong Kong.

Asian clients accounted for 30% of Sotheby's global transaction volume in 2023. That included a large contribution from Greater China, the auction house said, without providing details.

Sotheby's said more than a third of the buyers at a major series of auctions in New York two months ago were Asian, while Chinese buyers had paid high prices.

"Certainly we see sustained momentum coming out from Asia and China into our business," Nathan Drahi, Sotheby’s Asia managing director, told reporters on Thursday, ahead of the official opening of its Asia store on July 27.

($1 = 7.8053 Hong Kong dollars)

(Reporting by Clare Jim; Editing by Barbara Lewis)