Over the past few years, the landscape of the Asian art market has been rapidly reshaped. Seoul has drawn increasing attention from the international art world through Frieze Seoul, Kiaf Seoul, and Seoul Art Week, while Hong Kong, despite political changes and the impact of China’s economic slowdown, continues to maintain its position as a powerful transactional hub.
 
Within this structure, the central question is not simply whether “Seoul has replaced Hong Kong”. A more precise question is how Seoul and Hong Kong each perform the function of a center within the Asian art market.
 
To put it simply, Seoul has already emerged as a key hub in the Asian art market. However, it is still difficult to regard it as the single dominant center that has replaced Hong Kong. The current Asian art market is more accurately understood as a dual-hub structure in which ‘the Rise of Seoul’ and ‘the Persistence of Hong Kong’ are operating simultaneously.
 
Hong Kong remains strong in transactions. Seoul is rapidly securing cultural centrality. If Hong Kong’s strength comes from taxation, logistics, finance, and its international business environment, Seoul’s strength comes from exhibition infrastructure, urban culture, institutional networks, and growing international interest in Korean art and Korean culture as a whole. The two cities compete within the same market, but they operate in different ways.
 
 
 
Hong Kong, the Established Center of the Asian Art Market Built as a Transactional Hub

The reason Hong Kong has long functioned as the center of the Asian art market is clear. Hong Kong has maintained a free-port structure in which there are no customs duties on the import and export of artworks, and no value-added tax or sales tax is imposed.
 
This has been combined with its foundation as an international financial city, free capital movement, an English-based business environment, and an efficient port and airport logistics system. InvestHK also emphasizes that Hong Kong’s duty-free and VAT-free structure, together with its world-class logistics infrastructure, has created an environment favorable for international collectors, galleries, and auction houses.
 
This is Hong Kong’s essential strength. Art Basel Hong Kong did not create Hong Kong as an art-market center. Rather, the urban structure that makes transactions easy enabled the strength of Art Basel Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s hub status has been built not on the success of a single event, but on a transactional system where taxation, logistics, finance, law, private sales, and the auction industry are integrated.
 
 
 
Hong Kong’s Market Function After Political Uncertainty
 
Of course, Hong Kong’s weakening is also a reality. Since the enactment of the National Security Law, the political environment has changed, and the international community no longer places the same level of trust in Hong Kong’s openness and autonomy as it once did. Concerns over freedom of artistic expression and the possibility of censorship also continue. Yet political risk does not immediately mean the disappearance of market function. Hong Kong remains one of the strongest art-market platforms in Asia.
 
According to the 2026 Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report, China accounted for 14 percent of the global art market in 2025, maintaining its position as the third-largest market after the United States and the United Kingdom. Despite volatility in the mainland Chinese market, Hong Kong continues to function as a key gateway where Chinese-speaking collectors, international auctions, global galleries, and Asia-Pacific capital converge.

The results of Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 also demonstrate this. The 2026 fair attracted 91,500 visitors, and the Hong Kong government officially announced that it would continue its partnership with Art Basel for the next five years. This signals that Hong Kong is not merely a hub of the past, but a city that is institutionally maintaining its position as a platform for high-value art transactions in Asia.
 
 
 
Seoul, a New Center Emerging as a Cultural Platform

Seoul’s rise, by contrast, is unfolding in a different way. Seoul is not a transactional city with a free-port structure like Hong Kong. Instead, Seoul is emerging through a model in which the entire city operates as a cultural platform.
 
Frieze Seoul 2025 brought together 121 galleries from 28 countries and attracted 70,000 visitors from 48 countries, along with representatives from more than 160 major museums and institutions. This shows that Seoul is no longer merely a local market for domestic art consumption, but a major city that the international art world visits intensively during a specific period.

During the same period, Seoul Art Week connected 107 museums and galleries across the city and presented more than 100 exhibitions and programs. With Frieze Seoul, Kiaf Seoul, the Seoul Mediacity Biennale, the Seoul Sculpture Festival, and major museum exhibitions taking place at the same time, Seoul created a structure in which the city as a whole became a stage for contemporary art, rather than simply a host city for art fairs.
 
 
 
Seoul’s Institutional Base and Capacity to Absorb International Audiences
 
Seoul’s institutional foundation is also strengthening rapidly. In 2025, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea recorded more than 3.37 million visitors, reaching its highest level since opening, while the National Museum of Korea recorded 6,507,483 visitors. These figures show that Seoul has the large-scale institutional infrastructure needed to absorb international audiences and cultural consumption.
 
These numbers are not merely indicators of popularity. An art-market hub cannot be established through transactions alone. What matters is whether a city can produce exhibitions, attract audiences, generate discourse, and create a structure in which institutions and the market move together. In this sense, Seoul has clearly entered a new phase. Seoul is now moving beyond being a city that attracts attention in the Asian art market and becoming a city that must be visited.
 
 
 
Seoul as a Seasonal Hub and the Limits of Its Still-Thin Market Structure
 
Yet this is precisely where Seoul’s limitations become visible. Seoul is a powerful seasonal hub. During the period of Frieze Seoul and Kiaf Seoul, the city’s presence expands dramatically. However, the true measure of an art-market hub is not the success of a fair week alone. It requires year-round transactions, a permanent base for international galleries, depth in the secondary market, and a dense ecosystem of appraisal, storage, insurance, shipping, law, finance, publishing, criticism, and archives. In this respect, Seoul remains thinner than Hong Kong.
 
The internal structure of the Korean market also needs to be examined with a clear view. According to reports citing the Korea Arts Management Service’s 2025 Art Market Survey (Based on 2024 data), the domestic art transaction volume in 2024 was approximately KRW 615.1 billion, down 11.2 percent from the previous year. While the number of art fairs and exhibition events in Korea continues to increase, the overall transaction volume and market stability have entered a period of adjustment.
 
This point is important. An increase in the number of art fairs is not the same as a deepening of the market. A city does not become a hub simply because it hosts many events. A hub is a city where international capital, artworks, collectors, galleries, institutions, criticism, archives, and service industries are connected with high density. Seoul is quickly building these conditions, but it has not yet reached a fully mature stage.
 
 
 
Structural Differences Between Hong Kong and Seoul in Taxation and Logistics
 
In terms of taxation and customs procedures, Seoul also operates under different conditions from Hong Kong. Hong Kong maintains a structure in which customs duties and value-added tax are not imposed on art transactions. Korea, by contrast, applies a value-added tax system to general imports, and detailed rules and exceptions operate in complex ways depending on the type of artwork and the conditions of the transaction.
 
From the perspective of international art distribution, the key to urban competitiveness lies in how freely and at what cost artworks can move. In this respect, Hong Kong still holds an advantage over Seoul.

Seoul’s Competitiveness Lies Not in a Free-Port Model but in Its Cultural Ecosystem
 
Seoul’s strength, therefore, does not lie in imitating Hong Kong. Seoul is growing not as a free-port transactional hub, but as a cultural, institutional, and content-driven hub. Public museums, private museums, non-profit spaces, commercial galleries, international art fairs, urban festivals, and international interest in K-culture are coming together to position Seoul as a city with a high density of exhibition experience and cultural energy. Seoul’s rise is not simply a phenomenon of the art market. It is a sign that the city as a whole has begun to function as a cultural platform.

The Structure After the Event Is Seoul’s Next Task
 
However, becoming a center requires a structure that continues after the event. Overseas galleries and collectors must become part of a sustained network rather than one-time visitors, and Seoul must develop an ecosystem in which not only artwork sales but also appraisal, storage, shipping, insurance, law, finance, private sales, publishing, criticism, and archives operate together. Markets open through events, but hubs are sustained by structure.
 
Seoul’s next tasks are clear. It must refine its taxation and customs environment for international art distribution. It must strengthen the secondary market, private sales, and service industries such as appraisal, storage, shipping, and insurance. It must encourage major international galleries and collectors ‘to perceive Seoul not merely as a city to participate in, but as a city in which to maintain a presence and build relationships’.
 
It must also strengthen criticism, publishing, archives, and English-language art discourse so that Seoul can become not simply a place of sale, but a knowledge hub that produces interpretation and records.
 
 
 
The Asian Art Market Is Being Reshaped Not Around a Single Center but Through a Dual-Hub Structure
 
Ultimately, the current Asian art market cannot be explained through the simple binary of “Hong Kong or Seoul.” Hong Kong remains a transactional hub. Seoul is the fastest-rising cultural and institutional hub. Hong Kong is a city where artworks are easy to buy and sell, while Seoul is a city where artworks are shown, interpreted, and able to gain new attention.
 
In the long term, the outcome will not be determined by which city first declares itself the center. The key will be which city builds a more stable ecosystem, a stronger international network, a more sustainable institutional foundation, and a more persuasive art discourse.
 
Seoul has already entered that competition. However, structural thresholds still remain before it can become the center of the Asian art market. Seoul is not yet a city that has fully replaced Hong Kong. Rather, it is a city redefining the center of the Asian art market in a different way from Hong Kong. And it is precisely at this point that Seoul’s potential is greatest.

References

- Frieze. “Frieze Seoul 2025: Expanding Korea’s Cultural Presence and the Fair’s Role as a Hub for the Asian Art Market.” Frieze Press Release, September 2025. (Frieze)
- Seoul Metropolitan Government. “Seoul Art Week with Kiaf Seoul, Frieze Seoul, and Seoul Sculpture Festival Starting Sep. 1.” Seoul Metropolitan Government, August 27, 2025. (Official Website of the Seoul Metropolitan Government)
- Art Basel. “Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 Concludes with Strong Sales and Global Engagement.” Art Basel, March 2026. (Art Basel)
- The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. “HK to Host Art Basel for 5 Years.” news.gov.hk, March 25, 2026. (news.gov.hk)
- Art Basel & UBS. The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026. Art Basel / UBS, 2026. (Art Basel)
- InvestHK. ART: Hong Kong’s Art Market and Cultural Sector. InvestHK, 2026. (Invest Hong Kong | InvestHK)
- Korea Arts Management Service. 2025 Art Market Survey: Based on 2024 Data. Korea Arts Management Service, 2025. (Korea Arts Management Service)
- Newsis. “Korean Art Market Maintains KRW 600 Billion Range as Art Fairs Continue to Increase.” Newsis, November 28, 2025. (Newsis)
- The Korea Times. “National Art Museum Draws Record 3.3 Million Visitors This Year.” The Korea Times, December 24, 2025. (Korea Times)
- Korea.net. “National Museum of Korea in 2025 Ranks Third Worldwide in Visitors.” Korea.net, April 2026. (Korea.net)