The Asian art market has typically been driven by savvy investors and China's nouveau riche. "Some invest in art as though it were a stock market, with artworks that are virtually split into multiples of dematerialized shares," according to Artprice, an art auction research firm.

Chinese artist Zeng Fanzh

Chinese artist Zeng Fanzh

Hong Kong's "success has been marred by the poor reputation of Chinese buyers," according to a recent report by Artprice. "In Hong Kong, Christie's and Sotheby's have both experienced non-payment problems that have led to court proceedings... so much so that to avoid such problems, the major auction houses are now asking buyers to pay a HK$1 million (US$129,000) advance deposit for the more expensive items."

However, Christie's Francois Curiel sees this paradigm changing.

"What was interesting this weekend is that with the exception of this picture ("La foret blanche II" by Chu The-Chun) and maybe one or two others, there were no other records," Curiel told CNN's Patricia Wu. "There were good, strong, solid prices and it seems that the speculative buyers have left town."

Christie's annual autumn auction in Hong Kong, which ended Wednesday, grossed $334 million. Although art sales in the region were down by 15% to 25% the first half of the year, sales in the second half of the year bounced back, according to Curiel, Christie's Asian head.

Asia's growing art scene is reinforced by various government initiatives and local auction houses. "The relationship between art and money is totally uninhibited in China and generates ever more ambitious projects," the Artprice report says.

To read MORE "Christies Evolution of the Asian art market"