HONG KONG (AFP) ― The first Art Basel fair to be hosted by Hong Kong boasts a prestigious array of international art, highlighting the city’s new role as a global arts hub amid an explosion of personal wealth in mainland China.

The four-day annual show is the world’s premier art fair and has until now only been held in Switzerland and the United States.

On Wednesday wealthy VIPs flocked to the waterfront exhibition centre hosting the fair, which opens to the wider public on Thursday.

Dressed in glamorous outfits and against a backdrop of popping champagne corks, they perused an eclectic mix of works from more than 3,000 international artists exhibiting through 245 of the world’s leading galleries.

The main section showcases work from an international group of 171 modern and contemporary art galleries, with selections of paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and video.

In one room a Volkswagen Beetle had been compressed into a giant sphere.

Another installation drawing crowds featured a dishevelled human-sized rabbit sitting on a log, created by the American artist Marnie Weber.

Internationally renowned artists whose work is on display include Britain’s Damien Hirst, French artist JR and the German photographer Andreas Gursky.

Other sections feature selections from the Asia-Pacific region curated for the show, large-scale sculptures and a section with solo and two-person exhibitions from emerging international artists.

The boom in Hong Kong’s international art market is largely a result of the fast-growing wealth of mainland Chinese, some of whom are investing heavily in art.

“Having seen the high quality and vast range of presentations from galleries across the globe, I can assure you that the first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong promises many discoveries and delights,” Art Basel director Marc Spiegler told reporters.