A specialist antiques and Asian art shopping complex on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River in the Talat Noi district of central Bangkok, River City Bangkok has been the principal Asian antiquities retail centre of the Thai capital continuously since the original opening of the building in 1985. The four-storey building contains around one hundred and twenty individual specialist shops covering Asian antiques, contemporary Asian art, traditional Thai handicrafts and the various supplementary categories of high-end Asian collectible. The development was carried out by the Thai shipping family the Thanakorn Group during the early 1980s as part of the wider development of the principal Bangkok river port district. The original concept was conceived as a regional alternative to the various international Asian art markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila, providing a centralised Bangkok location for the buying and selling of Asian antiques drawn from across the wider South-East Asian region. The opening of the building in 1985 coincided with the wider expansion of the international Bangkok tourist trade through the 1980s. The principal retail areas across the four floors are organised broadly by category and by geographical origin. The ground and first floors contain the principal collection of South-East Asian antiques, with major specialist dealers covering Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese and northern Thai antiques. The second floor contains the principal Chinese and Tibetan antiquities sections, with several dealers specialising in older Chinese ceramics, classical Chinese furniture and the various Tibetan religious antiquities. The third floor contains the principal contemporary Asian art galleries, with around twenty individual galleries representing the principal living contemporary Thai, Burmese, Vietnamese and Cambodian artists alongside several major Chinese contemporary art dealers. The galleries host regular rotating exhibitions throughout the year, with major opening events typically held on Thursday and Friday evenings throughout the principal Thai cultural season between November and April. Supplementary facilities across the wider complex include a substantial central auction house holding monthly major auctions of Asian antiquities, contemporary Asian art and the various high-end collectible categories. The principal regular events include the monthly Bangkok Antique Show on the first Saturday of every month, with around three hundred individual dealers spread across the principal upper floors. The combination of the central river location, the high-quality specialist tenant mix and the regular auction calendar makes the complex one of the principal Asian antiquities marketplaces anywhere in South-East Asia.

Type: Market / Mall

Address: Soi Charoen Krung 24, 23, Bangkok, Thailand

Website: https://www.rivercitybangkok.com

Opening Date: 01/01/1985