Majendie states the just opened facility will rival that of Hong Kong and other Asian venues, and help propel Singapore into a center for the arts. The Singapore duty free zone is 323,000 square feet within the international airport, so storage may be done without paying duty or taxes or even customs forms. Christie's has leased a full floor of the facility. As I have mentioned in the past Christie's is aggressively moving into other areas of the art world, including galleries, financing, insurance, appraisals and storage.
Majendie states
To read the full article, click HERE.The Singapore FreePort Pte’s 30,000 square meters (323,000 square feet) of strong rooms -- enough to cover about six football fields -- are inside
Changi International airport, allowing non-resident collectors to store valuables such as jewels and wine without paying taxes or filing customs forms.
“It’s a state-of-the-art facility,” said Francois Curiel, Asia president of Christie’s, which has leased a floor of the building to provide storage for private clients. “Singapore will again become an important centre for art.”
Shareholders in the project, modeled after the freeports in Switzerland, include Singapore’s National Arts Council and National Heritage Board as part of the government’s effort to tap the growing private wealth in the region spent on art and entertainment. Singapore has invested more than $1 billion in the past decade on arts facilities such as museums, concert halls and exhibitions.
“The art market in Asia is growing as fast as the regional economy,” said Alain Vandenborre, president and co- founder of the project with chairman Yves Bouvier, who is also head of Geneva-based fine-art shipping company Natural Le Coultre. “Singapore is probably the only place like Switzerland that offers the required stability, neutrality and security.”
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