She stayed in the city for three years, also working with Chinese paintings. She later volunteered to go to New York when, in 1991, an unpaid internship position in Chinese works of art ceramics opened up. Wong started at Sotheby’s as a volunteer in the Chinese department in London when she was pursuing a graduate diploma at the Asian Arts at the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University.
“Sometimes they would tell me, ‘Patti, this is not what I like. Part of Wong’s motivation was to place objects with people she knew “for the sheer selfishness that I would get to see them again.” While she jokes that those she contacted would buy things because “they felt sorry for me,” she would find she learned their tastes after a few tries, and they would eventually guide her to what they wanted. “I used to call my mom and say, ‘would you like to buy this?’ and she would say, ‘You can’t really call me every week and ask me to buy something!’” But then she’d recommend a friend who might be interested. In the pages of these glossy wish books, Wong would find sterling silver and other alluring pieces to flag to her mother and others she knew in Hong Kong to see if they found them as nice as she did, and if so, she’d offer to go to the auctions and help them win it. Unique, precious stones are among many glittering items the 30-year Sotheby’s veteran had offered to potential buyers in Asia over the years, beginning with items that would catch her fancy in catalogs she couldn’t help herself from buying at Sotheby’s and Christie’s when she was a student in London. Today, Wong arguably knows the diamond market better than anyone as she helped to create the global retailer Sotheby’s Diamonds and served as its chairman from 2005 until she left the auction house last year to start her eponymous art advisory firm with a former colleague, Daryl Wickstrom. The 56-year-old Wong has been drawn to sparkling stones in particular since visiting jewelry stores with her mother, Alice Piera Lam Lee Kiu Yue, a former deputy chief executive at Hang Seng Bank, when growing up in Hong Kong. “There’s nobody from the auction world or in the art market in general, particularly focused on Asia, who has had as much convening power or impact in the marketplace.” Principal of the New York advisory Schwartzman& and former Sotheby’s colleague of Wong’s. The Williamson Pink Star, which Sotheby’s sold for US$57.7 million in October 2022 in Hong Kong.
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