Still no official word has emerged regarding who will take the wheel at Phillips Asia in Hong Kong following the departure of Jonathan Crockett in late August. Amid a broader economic and cultural climate where the international art market remains notably soft, nobody appears particularly eager to volunteer for the charmingly impossible task of producing miracles on demand. Generally regarded as the bronze medalist in the auction scene behind industry giants, the auction house has been quietly shedding rainmakers beyond Crockett, including high-profile departures such as Miety Heiden in New York. Within regional circles, the prevailing suspicion, naturally, is that the Russian-owned Mercury group is trimming its sails, cutting operational costs, and perhaps even casting about for a potential new owner.
Mercury might well take a leaf from Sotheby’s glossy handbook when considering how to navigate these turbulent waters. The rival house has never been shy of hiring photogenic, glamorous figures to capture the public imagination and court high-net-worth buyers. Among them is CC Wang, who presides over Sotheby’s Maison, an upscale destination that has sometimes been described by less charitable observers as a luxury department store functioning with an auctioneer’s stationery. Yet, alongside its penchant for high-glam retail concepts, some of the house’s most astute appointments were made during the company’s publicly traded heyday.
Chief among these legacy appointments is the quietly formidable Jen Hua. Recruited back in 2013 by Kevin Ching, who then served as the chief executive of Sotheby’s Asia, alongside Patti Wong, its former chairwoman, Hua has since established herself as a power broker of the old-fashioned sort. While broader market reports consistently suggest that mainland Chinese collectors have been keeping their wallets significantly closer to their chests in recent times, Hua has successfully kept Sotheby’s performing steadily across Greater China. Now serving as the deputy chairwoman of Sotheby’s Asia and chairwoman of China, she functions as the house’s discreet political ace, bringing a unique background to her commercial role as the granddaughter of the former Chinese leader Hua Guofeng.
