Page 52 - Forbes - Asia (October 2019)

PROMOTION

VIETNAM’S NEXT GAME

CHANGER: ART

Entrepreneur Nguyen Thi Kim Duc has

big plans to grow the local art market by

launching a platform for investment.

The art market has been viewed as an asset
class in its own right by investors around the
world for decades now. This continuing trend
has helped to contribute to the current boom
in the global art market, which reached more
than US$67 billion in sales in 2018, up 6%
from a year earlier, Art Basel and UBS reported
in March.
While works by great Impressionist or Mod-
ern artists such as Claude Monet or Pablo
Picasso might be top targets for investors,
their pieces are already largely in public and
private collections. As a result, more investors
are turning their focus to newer markets and
artists, including artwork coming out of Viet-
nam. In June 2019, for instance a piece by late
Vietnamese artist Le Pho sold for $1.4 million
at Christie's in Hong Kong, a record price for a
work by a Vietnamese artist.
One prominent art investor is Vietnamese
entrepreneur Nguyen Thi Kim Duc, who has
invested in paintings from notable Vietnam-
ese artists such as Bui Xuan Phai, Nguyen
Sang, Nguyen Gia Tri, Nguyen Tu Nghiem, Tran
Van Chan, Le Pho, Le Tiet Cuong and Trinh Tu,
among others.
"America, Europe and China have long
invested in art; indeed it is an important invest-
ment channel for the super-rich. Vietnam
should also be part of this trend. I see great
potential and opportunity in art investment,"
Duc says.

An Artistic Streak
Duc, Founder and Chairman of HTD Media,
was born in Hanoi in a family of artistic talent.
Her father, Nguyen Son Dong, is well-known
for his novel Xu Doai May Trang May. Under his
influence Duc has maintained an interest in
Entrepreneur Nguyen Thi Kim Duc sees art as an important investment the arts even as she built a successful career
channel for the wealthy in Vietnam. in business.