Galleries at the high end of the art market in Asia find themselves twisting and turning in the wind. Leng Lin, Pace Gallery’s longtime Chinese rainmaker, who helped set up the New York heavyweight’s operations in Asia, has returned from Hong Kong to the Chinese capital to focus on his first true love, Beijing Commune, the gallery which he founded in 2004. Stepping into his big shoes is Evelyn Lin, Christie’s former deputy chairman of 20th century Asian and contemporary art. Word has it international blue-chip galleries will now be exclusively recruiting talents from one of the two leading auction houses. 

On the eve of the much-anticipated solo exhibition of the highly desirable paintings by American artist Mark Bradford, Hauser & Wirth’s Hong Kong sales team will only have to split commissions between its two long-serving directors, Lihsin Tsai and Ying Yue Li. After a highly publicized move to a street-level location in Hong Kong’s business district, the Swiss mega gallery and its managing partner Elaine Kwok are amicably ending their working relationship. There is speculation that Kwok’s next destination is Sotheby’s, given that she cut her teeth at Christie’s and basked in the auction podium limelight.