Joining the company are Angela Cheng as vice president and head of marketing and events, Asia, Simon Tam as head of wine, China, and Ferida Yang, as Shanghai representative.

Cheng, who previously served as regional director of marketing for Greater China and Mongolia for Hilton Hotels, will be responsible for Christie's presence and brand awareness across the region. Based in Hong Kong, she will be working with 36 Asia specialists and will be part of the global marketing team to develop an Asian strategy.

Tam, a well-known wine consultant who will also be based in Hong Kong, will be responsible for developing the company's wine sales in Asia, particularly focusing on client relationships in Greater China. Christie's was the first international auction house to organise a wine auction in Hong Kong in 1999. In his new role, Tam will report to Charles Curtis, head of wine for Asia and will be working closely with wine teams in Amsterdam, Geneva, London, Paris, and New York.

Yang, who joins the firm from Neiman Marcus in Las Vegas, where she was a personal shopper to high net worth clients, will be based in Shanghai. Prior to that, she was a senior financial consultant at Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. In her new post, she will be responsible for client services and business development with the goal of bringing more of the company's global brand to collectors in the region.

"These appointments are part of a larger set of initiatives planned for 2011 which demonstrate, once again, our great commitments to Asia and our desire to offer our services to collectors throughout the region," Francois Curiel, president of Asia, said in a statement.

The Asian luxury market has boomed with the influx of new investment into the region. According to the Asia Pacific Wealth Report by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch, the region's population of HNW individuals went up by 25.8 per cent in 2009. Japan was recorded as the single largest HNW individual market in Asia-Pacific, accounting for 54.6 per cent of the total. Hong Kong, which recorded the highest percentage gain in the world that year, saw its HNW population go up 104.4 per cent.