Rebecca Wei, One of Asia’s Most High-Powered Auction Executives, Resigns From Christie’s Just Eight Months After Getting a Promotion

Rebecca Wei, one of the most prominent auction-house executives
in Asia, has stepped down from her role as chairman of Christie’s
Asia after just eight months on the job. A former management
consultant, she joined the auction house in 2012 as the Asia
general manager and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the
region’s president in 2016 before her most recent promotion last
year.

The high-powered executive’s departure comes in the wake of a
downturn in Chinese auction sales amid economic uncertainty and the
strain of the US-China trade war. artnet Analytics found that total auction
sales in China dropped 10.5 percent the first half of 2019 compared
to January through June of last year. That figure was even larger,
11.7 percent, across all of Asia.

Christie’s has been particularly hard hit: its spring sales in
Hong Kong made HK$2.55 billion ($377 million), down
approximately 18 percent from the equivalent series of sales last
year. (Rival Sotheby’s, meanwhile, bucked the trend, seeing a small
rise in its spring Hong Kong results to $482 million (HK$3.78
billion), up from $466.5 million last spring.)

Christie’s confirmed that Wei is leaving the company “to take up
a new professional challenge in 2020.” Her promotion to chairman,
which has less day-to-day involvement in the auction business, may
not have been the best fit, speculated the South China
Morning Post, which first reported Wei’s departure.

“I am immensely proud of the growth that has been achieved
during my time with Christie’s, in regional sales as well as Asian
contribution to Christie’s global revenue,” Wei said in a statement
provided to artnet News. “We are well positioned to further expand
and serve collectors in the region in the years ahead.”

Wei’s ascension in the company coincided with the rise of
a new class of billionaire
Asian collectors such as Liu Yiqian,
whose big ticket
purchases include a $170.4
million Amedeo Modigliani nude from Christie’s
New York and a $45 million 15th-century
Buddhist tapestry from Christie’s Hong Kong. Wei was
sitting with collector Robert Chang when he won a rare 18th-century Chinese
vase for $14.5 million at Christie’s Hong Kong in spring
2018.

“During her tenure, Rebecca has contributed to the growth of
Christie’s activities across the region and we are grateful for her
contributions,” a Christie’s spokesperson said in a statement. “We
are well positioned to further expand and serve collectors in the
region in the years ahead. Our leading teams continue to innovate
and extend our activities to clients throughout Asia, welcoming new
audiences, serving collectors as well as providing outstanding
education and public exhibition opportunities.”

Prior to joining the auction house, Wei spent a decade at
McKinsey & Company, where she was the first female partner elected
to their Greater China office. The move to Christie’s constituted a
major career shift.

“At the age of 40 I just said I need a change,” Wei told
CNBC last year. “You
have to ask yourself: ‘Do I still feel passionate about what I’m
doing?’ If I see my passion diminishing I will move.”

The post Rebecca Wei, One of Asia’s Most High-Powered
Auction Executives, Resigns From Christie’s Just Eight Months After
Getting a Promotion appeared first on artnet News.