It seemed a minor miracle that SHContemporary re-launched last week. After weeks if not months of rumors up to a nail-biting finish—did they get the permits? Will the fair go ahead?—the fair managed to sputter to life last Thursday.

It did so to a litany of complaints: the deafening silence in the face of rumors in the run-up to the fair, the non-existent PR and the terrible augur of empty booths on opening night (most foreign galleries had trouble clearing customs in time). Biljana Ciric, the curator of the special section, pulled out two weeks before the fair. And the icing on a missing cake? Galleries were informed that no sales could take place within the fair, as the permit obtained was one only to exhibit art. It almost sounds like a joke—the farce is leavened only by the fact that exhibitors could easily work around that (no one is taking art out after handing over cash, after all; it’s not a supermarket).

Obviously, the foreign participants were furious. Their works could only be installed at the end of opening night, well after the VIPs had left (Uli Sigg, for one, was spotted)—though in some cases, customs were cleared only by Saturday. The “Korea” special section, for instance, was morbidly and sadly empty on the first day or two. Indeed, Wei Ling Gallery (Kuala Lumpur) is currently planning collective legal action with other foreign galleries to sue for compensation. Many are shocked and disappointed with the lack of communication from the fair organizers.

Needless to say, crowds were pretty thin. Frankly, I enjoyed the opportunity to observe the interior details of this Soviet-style architectural gem— but of course, the only thing worse than an overcrowded fair is an under-attended one.

Still, some local galleries reported sales; their clientele reliably showed up. Some of the art presented was decent in quality: Li Wenguang’s delicate drawings at James Cohan, for instance, or Geng Yini at BANK (Shanghai); m97 showed Wang Ningde’s film-filter light pieces (for lack of a better description), while Beijing’s WhiteSpace showed its regular stable of artists (He An, Yan Lei, Xu Qu). Wang Dawei had some interesting ink wash on cement (FQ Projects, Shanghai). Internationally, one Korean gallery showed dansaekhwa master Park Seo-bo; The Drawing Room (Manila, Singapore) showed Mark Salvatus. But my suspicion is that the beatific smiles on some gallerists’ faces were due more to very heavy booth discounts rather than actual sales—and foreign galleries still had to pay for shipping.

And then there were utterly bizarre booths. Boun presented an eccentric artist who designed his own clothes and drew small paintings of horses—which he hung in the shape of a horse. Frogman Art (yes, really) from Beijing showed super-kitschy works; apparently, this is popular among a certain set of the newly rich. There were others still.

What is truly sad is how the fair has declined. Founded in 2007, SHContemporary had been considered a highlight on the art fair circuit in Asia. Previous years featured very stylish openings and fairly notable speakers in the forum. But hamstrung by import duties and the bureaucratic quagmire on the one hand, and on the other, wrong-footed by the meteoric rise of ArtHK (now purchased by ArtBasel), the fair has also weathered the vicissitudes of the art market very poorly. Last year, the fair was even cancelled (in advance) as it was unable to obtain the necessary permits. Dark clouds had therefore been hovering menacingly over its comeback this year.

The nail in the coffin is that SHContemporary now has competition. Photo Shanghai had an amazing debut earlier this month, while many anticipate great things from Zhou Tiehai’s West Bund Art and Design Fair. Further along in November is the small but elegant fair, Art021. That said, in terms of art work alone (not organization, not footfall), SHContemporary is probably better than Art Beijing—just. SHContemporary therefore finds itself in an awkward middle position between these high-quality fairs and the third-tier fairs below—and Bologna Fiere will have to figure out if it even wants to go down there.