Port Potential

Courtesy Thomas Erben Gallery

Chitra Ganesh, "Godzilla" from "Tales of Amnesia" (2007)

Andy Warhol Pablo Picasso Lucian Freud Bill Viola Keith Haring Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani Investors Indulge Appetite for Luxury Dealer Holly Solomon’s Papers Headed to Smithsonian

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Lang’s gallery had some of the most expensive offerings of the fair, including a $3 million Keith Haring painting and a $6 million Andy Warhol of Greta Garbo, which Lang acquired at auction in London last year for under $2 million.

Even those asking prices paled next to Copenhagen’s Galleri Faurschou, which is showcasing a $16.8 million Lucian Freud painting of a reclining, fully frontal male nude as well as a $9.2 million Picasso from 1964.

“This is all about bridge building between Asian and Western galleries,” says Jens Faurschou, who plans to open a new branch of his gallery in Beijing next month. “This is an ideal mix of both Western art and contemporary Chinese art, and there’s quality across the board.”

That optimistic viewpoint was generally endorsed by other exhibitors, who seem to agree with Pierre Huber’s contention that “the first year [of the art fair] is not the issue, it’s the second and third years that are going to matter.”

Huber hasn’t been shy about his Shanghai fair, which has been in the works for three years. “This is the first important, top-level international art fair in China,” said the dealer.

Judd Tully is the editor-at-large of Art & Auction magazine.