For Jasmine Prasetio, the spark of a 20-year journey in art was lit early on in life.
The managing director for Southeast Asia at Sotheby’s credits her mother and grandmother with developing her interest in the field. “I remember waking up before dawn as a little girl to beat the traffic driving from Jakarta to Bandung,” she tells Options, recounting her trips to the studio of the late Indonesian abstract artist Ahmad Sadali. “The highways were not so well-developed, and we took winding roads.”
Some years later, Prasetio’s grandmother would bring her to see works by Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The experience left a deep impression on her, she recalls. “Since then, art has become an organic part of my journey.”
Despite the burgeoning passion, Prasetio did not set out to pursue a career in the world of art. “It never crossed my mind because I didn’t think a career in the arts would be feasible,” she says. Instead, she read economics in university and had a stint in law, but continued learning about art by reading, as well as talking to collectors and industry folk.
Prasetio eventually joined Sotheby’s in 2004, after finding herself “at the right place, at the right time, with the right people”. “It was at a point when I decided I did not wish to pursue a career in law and was exploring other avenues,” she says of her entry into the art and luxury broker. Citing the Chinese term for affinity or fate, she adds: “I think it was yuan fen … It was an unexpected surprise to me that my hobby could become so useful.”
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Evolving hues
Over the past two decades, Prasetio has observed massive changes in the global art scene. She cites the Covid-19 pandemic as a major needle-mover, pushing the market to develop “new methods of fostering community and collector engagement”.
At the same time, with a younger generation now maturing into the art-collecting space, institutions, galleries and auction houses are having to adapt to these changing demographics. Some US$84 trillion ($111.3 trillion) is expected to change hands over the next two decades, according to a UBS report released this year. Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, reckons this shift in wealth will see a new wave of partners, spouses and children becoming art collectors themselves.
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Digital transformation is shaping up to play a big role in this game of catch-up. The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2024 report found that millennial and Gen Z collectors spent a significantly larger share on art online in 2023 and the first half of 2024. A report by online marketplace Artsy similarly found that 82% of collectors aged 36 and below have purchased art online.
At Sotheby’s, new sales formats such as Sotheby’s Sealed, an online platform which held its first fine art auction this June, are keeping the firm up to date with collectors’ evolving preferences and comfort zones.
But collectors’ ages are not the only factor that has changed. The Wall Street Journal reported in August that a series of auctions in New York in May — held by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips — had sales totalling US$1.4 billion, down 22% from a year earlier. And those at the higher end of the market are spending less, going by figures from the Art Basel-UBS survey.
Still, the survey showed that expenditure on art remains robust at the median level. Clare McAndrew, author of the Art Basel-UBS survey and founder of Arts Economics, says changes in the “more diverse range of channels and price points” that high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are transacting at are “likely to contribute to the ongoing shift in focus away from the narrow high-end of sales that has dominated in previous years”.
Brushing up
Lowering barriers to entry could therefore be the key to sustaining players in the market. Prasetio points out that art can be made more accessible through “increased visibility, simplified processes, and new initiatives”. For instance, Sotheby’s this year rolled out a new fee structure that standardised buyer’s fees at 20% for items at or under US$6 million. This has made it “easier to calculate fees and more accessible to buy in Sotheby’s auctions”, says Prasetio.
Bringing in new blood and generating interest are just as important. In Hong Kong, the firm has opened Sotheby’s Maison, a 24,000-sq-ft space that can host exhibitions and auctions “all year round”, says Prasetio. “[This enhances] accessibility and visibility for a wide range of art categories, from ancient to ultra-contemporary, as well as popular culture and luxury items.”
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Here in Singapore, to get more people curious about art, Sotheby’s makes its exhibitions publicly accessible; it also organises talks and events alongside its auctions.
“Besides being a thriving financial centre, Singapore has also emerged as a key cultural hub in the region,” says Prasetio. She highlights the city-state’s diverse arts scene, with everything “from ground-up initiatives and independent projects to blockbuster exhibitions featuring internationally renowned artists and even art fairs”.
Singapore plays host to several exhibitions catered to the masses, such as the ongoing Future World at the ArtScience Museum, and Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, organised by entertainment company Hustle & Bustle in 2023. Wider-scale events, like the Art SG fair launched last year, are also helping to bring art to the public. Prasetio notes that such activities open up “opportunities for audiences of different walks of life to participate in [Singapore’s] exciting arts and cultural scene”.
Such efforts appear to be paying off, with a new generation of art enthusiasts emerging in Singapore. Sotheby’s returned in 2022 for its first live auction here in 15 years. The interest was evident — the session sold 47 of 50 lots on offer, and recorded $24.5 million in sales, beating expectations.
Over a quarter (27%) of HNWIs in Singapore, the Art Basel-UBS survey found, favour auctions over other platforms for buying art, such as through dealers and art fairs. The city-state ranked second in this regard, behind China with 28%. Globally, auctions came in as the third-most popular channel for art purchases.
A colourful scene
Sotheby’s most recent art auction here took place in June, with works by globally acclaimed artists such as Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama going under the gavel. One-fifth of buyers were new collectors, with a majority being young buyers aged below 40. This growing pool of younger collectors, Prasetio says, “indicates a vibrant and flourishing market for art” here.
“Sotheby’s has seen a significant increase in expenditure by Singapore-based collectors,” she adds, noting that those based here tripled their spending between 2020 and 2023. “There is a growing number of collectors, including the ‘Next Gen’, who are also passionately engaged as patrons of the art, often becoming involved in non-profit organisations and playing an active role bridging institutions … with art by artists from the region.”
The art market has also grown region-wide. Prasetio notes that Southeast Asia’s collecting scene has become “more vibrant” in recent years, and collectors are “generally supportive” of homegrown artists. “We are seeing a surge in interest for both established international artists and emerging artists from the region.”
She cites a work by Indonesian artist Christine Ay Tjoe, Diangkat Pemandangan (Lifted by Landscape), which sold for $518,000 at the June auction — far above the estimate of $120,000 to $250,000. Similarly, Women In A Garden and Procession Scene, a double-sided four panel folding screen by Vietnam’s Tran Van Ha, sold for $360,000, four times its top valuation.
This bright spot in an increasingly difficult market is fuelling Sotheby’s continued efforts in the region. Though Hong Kong remains the priority for most major firms — Bonhams, Christie’s and Phillips have also all set up shop there — Singapore isn’t being discounted entirely.
Prasetio says Sotheby's intends to continue hosting auctions and exhibitions in Singapore, leveraging the country’s “strategic position as a gateway to the wider region”. “Its dynamic environment offers abundant opportunities for us to contribute to the maturation and growth of the regional cultural ecosystem,” she adds.
Strokes of inspiration
Two decades into her time at Sotheby’s, Prasetio continues to find joy in her work. “At Sotheby’s we are so fortunate to be exposed to the best of the best in every category,” she says. The globalised, interconnected nature of her work, she adds, is something she finds particularly exciting: “A Singaporean collector can be on vacation in the Maldives, bid for a painting in New York, then have it shipped and hung in their apartment in Paris.”
The human side of things also keeps Prasetio going. “I love the people I work with,” she says, including her colleagues, artists and curators, and even collectors “who are so passionate that they would break a wall in order to accommodate their new artwork”.
Asked about her favourite artists, Prasetio jokes that this is “the hardest question to answer for people who love art”. “I’m less fixated on the artist than I am with the experience that an artwork gives,” she explains. “For example, I admire Olafur Eliasson and how his work Rainbow assembly can bring forth feelings of hope and beauty.”
Georgette Chen, the late Singaporean painter famous for her self-portraits and still lifes, is another artist whose works have left an impression on Prasetio, even before she started working at Sotheby’s. Chen’s White Orchids (Phalaenopsis) was among the works sold at the June auction, and one of Prasetio’s favourites among the lots on offer.
“Her compositions are tranquil but imbued with a sense of strength and courage to be unique, which to me resonates with her career and role in art history,” says Prasetio of Chen’s work. She goes on to discuss other artists whom she admires, including Jane Lee and Christine Ay Tjoe, whose careers she has followed “since their early years”.
As Prasetio speaks, it is evident that the enthusiasm for art that she cultivated in her youth has only continued to grow. From those early-morning drives to Bandung to global auctions linking continents, she now stands at the forefront of a shifting art world, eager to see where the gavel lands next.
