LONDON.- The 23rd edition of Asian Art in London revamped for a non-travelling collector’s world, traditional annual event with the addition of Indian & Islamic week from 22 – 31 October, followed by East Asian week 29 October – 7 November, a dramatically revised and enlarged digital presence and an ability to react swiftly to ongoing developments in restrictions to travel and one to one engagement. Publicly announced sales figures in excess of £50m, almost double those of 2019.

In addition to physical exhibitions across Mayfair, St. James’s and Kensington Church Street, direct digital links to the participants’ own websites and a ground-breaking Virtual Exhibition Gallery with 3-D capability gave visitors unable to attend AAL in person the opportunity to view remotely a wide variety of pieces on offer from participants. Following the announcement of national lockdown, closing East Asian week 3 days early, AAL quickly created a new East Asian Virtual Exhibition Gallery to offer participants additional exposure. The Virtual Exhibition Galleries remain one of the most viewed pages on the website, signifying the appetite and appeal for viewing pieces from a variety of participants in one space. In addition, AAL spearheaded new initiatives 'Curated By' and 'Pick of the Museums'.

Dealer participants were almost all locally based due to restrictions on travel and put on shows containing everything from Indian and Islamic armour, via Ming Dynasty jewellery, Buddhist sculpture, textiles, metalwork and ceramics of all types to contemporary Japanese works of art and contemporary Chinese paintings, all illustrating the extraordinary depth of knowledge and expertise based in the city.

Robert Bradlow, Asian art market commentator, in his 7th newsletter on 24 November 2020 writes: “This rounded off a successful week of sales in London where the major auction houses turned over £30m (Chinese and Japanese auctions only) against a combined low estimate of £14.59m and an average selling rate of 72%. The event of Asian Art in London continues to perform well, despite difficulties of the pandemic this year…. ”. In fact, the publicly announced auction figures for the 2020 event exceeded £50m overall, almost doubling the number for 2019.

The 2020 art awards, generously sponsored by Antiques Trade Gazette and Apollo Magazine, were presented in a Virtual Award Ceremony on 29 October.

Chair of Asian Art in London, Leila de Vos van Steenwijk said: “Faced at the start of organising this year’s series of events with an unprecedented landscape, the Board stepped up to the plate, widely reimagined Asian Art in London and delivered a dynamic vision for our participants in 2020. Of course, we could not operate without the support of those strong participants and our sponsors and I thank them all.”