The organizer of the prestigious art fairs Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach has signed an agreement to purchase a majority share in the Hong Kong International Art Fair. That in itself wouldn't be so bad (although will be hard for Singapore to claim they want to be the Art Basel of Asia, now that there is an official Art Basel Hong Kong!), but the very, very bad news is that Art Basel organizers have decided to move the regular May fair to a February slot next year (Feb 2-5, 2012), right after Art Stage Singapore (Jan 12-15, 2012). This mean most galleries are unlikely to book for both fairs and will prioritize Hong Kong, where Chinese buyers with deeper pockets go. For the Hong Kong fair it's a much better time on the art calender as it was so close to Art Basel and the Venice Biennale... ArtStage should probably consider move to a new slot in to the fall, maybe piggy-backing on the Singapore F1, which brings lots of people in town and would give some an additional reason to come!
