The latest, most contagious Covid metamorphosis, Omicron, made a fashionably late entrance to Asia, and, as a result, the first few months of 2022 felt like reliving 2020 all over again. In Hong Kong, most cultural events came to a standstill, especially at public museums and nonprofit art spaces.

But for commercial outfits in Hong Kong, where time is always money, the show must go on. Sotheby’s didn’t bother to postpone its spring auctions, which took place in late April on its premises in glitzy Pacific Place, with in-real-life previews in the Pedder Building (where Gagosian’s branch is parked) and Cheung Kong Center (the headquarters of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s richest man).