Visiting galleries may keep artworks in Hong Kong for months due to shipping chaos

Manila’s Art for Space booth at this year’s Art Central.

Photo: Eugene Lee Overseas galleries exhibiting at Art Central in Hong Kong are considering keeping their artworks in the city for months after the fair ends amid rising shipping prices as a result of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Ahead of the fair’s opening at the Central Harbourfront on Wednesday, gallerists told the South China Morning Post that fuel charges for shipping to Hong Kong had increased by as much as four times.

Art Central brings together more than 100 galleries from the city, mainland China, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, the United States, Britain, Spain and Israel, among other countries, and runs until Sunday.

Simon Vargas, founder and director of Miami-based Wolf & Nomad gallery, said he was considering keeping the artworks in the city until it hosted the Affordable Art Fair, which usually takes place in May.

Shipments were difficult this year, Vargas said, adding that one crate with a large work was only due to arrive on Wednesday, forcing him to adjust how he presented his booth. “We normally send through Qatar, but it cancelled and had the work sent back.

Then we shipped it through Amsterdam, which was cancelled as well.

We now had it shipped to New York first before coming to Hong Kong,” he said.

Art Central runs from Wednesday to Sunday.

Photo: Eugene Lee While carriers must refund payment if they cannot deliver a shipment, the extended times had prompted him to rethink his plan after the fair.

The manager of Dubai-based Rarares Gallery, Olga Prokhorova, said she had been worried whether there would be enough time to set up a booth as her artworks slowly made their way to the city.

The closure of airspace in the Middle East and the increase in fuel charges by as much as four times had complicated the process, she added.

The pieces only arrived days ago, just ahead of Wednesday’s opening. “I think costs will keep rising,” she said. “I don’t think we will [ship works back after the fair] for now.

I would rather bring more art here to do exhibitions and projects in Hong Kong, instead of bringing them back, but I want to see enough demand, of course.

Prokhorova said the artworks could remain in Hong Kong for a few months, which would also give her time to consider her options ahead of Art Dubai in May.

Emma Guarnieri, sales director of Galleria Barovier&Toso from Venice, said she chose direct flights to ship glass sculptures to Hong Kong, avoiding the Middle Eastern r

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