Damien Hirst's masterpiece sold for record US$2.2 million at Seoul Auction

By Bayani S Cruz

British artist Damien Hirst sells work from his Butterfly Series for a record HKD17.2 million (US$2.2 million) in a Hong Kong auction on October 7 2009

Brimming, buzzing, beguiling Beijing

By Rodney Diola

Foued El Mabrouk was a bright-eyed twenty-year old student from Tunisia when he arrived in Beijing nearly 27 years ago. Now he is the general manager of the city’s grandest hotel, the Beijing Grand Hyatt, which sits in one the swankiest addresses in the city just besides the Oriental Plaza...

Unconvinced by dismal science

By Hugh Young

Recently I was passed an article written in 1991 by the late Isaac Asimov about economics. Asimov, a polymath best known for his science fiction writing, simply could not understand “the dismal science” and I must admit neither can I. “People may say they understand it and economists even...

Myanmar contemporary art makes waves

By Cho Kyi

Local art from Myanmar has come a long way and is being sought after by savvy collectors from the region and from the West. The finest artists' works are, however, still affordable in the regional context, unlike the stratospheric price increases in other regional markets. In the absence of a...

Permissively different

By John Holland

Bahrain is very different from what you would expect in the Middle East. Permissively different. Women everywhere and many of them not wearing very much. So, after Kuwait, where seeing a woman was like trying to find a snowball in the desert, it sort-of grabs your attention

A fine wine hub in the making

By Jeannie Cho Lee

When Hong Kong announced the abolition of wine and beer duties on February 27 2008, many people in the wine industry were stunned. Hong Kong appears to have enormous potential to become a fine wine hub. And for consumers, this is great news