How Xin Li Became Christie’s Secret Weapon in Selling Masterpieces to Asian Billionaires

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Kelly Crow

Christie’s Xin Li with ’Pens-The Two Celestial Bodies’ by Hong Kyoung-Tack. Carmen Chan for The Wall Street Journal

NEW YORK---In mid-October, Christie’s art expert Xin Li—a former professional basketball star and model from China’s Manchuria region—was escorting billionaire collectors through the Louvre in Paris. Days later, she popped up in Hong Kong to wine and dine tech millionaires at the auction house’s showroom. Now, Ms. Xin is in New York to field phone bids during the season’s major fall auctions, which started Tuesday and continue through next week. Ms. Xin is a leading player in the art business’s central game right now: a race to match a small number of $10 million-plus masterpieces with a small number of mega-collectors, who are increasingly coming from Asia. [link]