Chinese Art Market Today

Art Sales in the News

March 18-25, 2011 - Asian Art Week will be held in the metropolitan New York. 5 auction houses, 18 museum and Asian cultural institutions, 34 Asian Art Dealers from the U.S. and abroad will participate this great event.
Dec. 4, 2010 - True to the recent trend, online bidders have great impact on the current sales of fine Chinese art works. A blue and white dish having an underglazed blue with scrolling lotus pattern represented by The Rago's year-end Estates Auction was sold for $116,850, far surpassing its $10,000-$15,000 estimaten. (Auction Central News).
Nov. 17, 2010 - Asian art, particularly Chinese items brought the most money. The Dallas Auction Gallery sold a Chinese white jade censer of the Qing dynasty, estimated at $8,000-$12,000, for $80,000 (Auction Central News).

Best-Seller Chinese Artists (Spring, 2010)

Top Five Contemporary Chinese Painters: Wu Guanzhong, Shi Qi, Yuan Xikun, Cui Ruzhuo, and Fan Zeng.
Top Five Contemporary Oil Painters: Chang Yu, Wu Guanzhong, Wu Dayu, Jing Shangyi, Liao Jichun.

CHINESE ART MARKET NEWS

China Guardian Bests the West (June 22, 2010) " Beijing’s leading auction house China Guardian just wrapped up their 22nd edition of quarterly auctions: 2300 works of art sold (over three days) for $311 million. As Colin Gleadell notes in his roundup of market news, that puts China Guardian ahead of Western rivals Christie’s and Sotheby’s ..."

Ceramics and Works of Art Above Boom Levels (April 15, 2010) " The Economist looks closer at Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale and tells us that the sale might not have been a record for overall volume but it does represent a stronger market than the previous peak in 2007. ..."

Chinese Works of Art Keep Selling (January 7, 2010) "The Chinese market, however, never seems to disappont these days ... Dealers have come to believe that anything Chinese will sell in this marekt, as long as there is nothing wrong with it." ...

Undervalued Chinese Works of Art (January 3, 2010) "The Antiques Trade Gazette points to a dramatic 63% rise in Mainland Chinese buyers in the recent Christie’s sales in Hong Kong over the prior year. Like all of the Chinese works of art sales, there is intense competition for the best works with the best provenance. ..."

Asian Art Worth $26 Million Lures Record Chinese Buyers to U.K (November 4, 2009) "Newly wealthy Chinese are keen to acquire high quality objects from their heritage, particularly when associated with Emperors from the Qing and Ming dynasties, said dealers. ..."

Where to Buy Fine Chinese Art

Auction Houses Specializing in Asian Art

Ceramics: Beijing: Hanhai, Poly, Guardian, Council, Zhongmao shenjia; Hong Kong: Sotheby's, Christie's; New York: Christie's.
Antique Painting and Calligraphy: Beijing: Guardian, Zhongmao shenjia, Council, Poly, Hanhai; Hangzhou: Xiling; Hong Kong: Christie's; Shanghai: Duoyunxuan.
Contemporary Chinese Art: Beijing: Guardian, Council, Zhongmao shengjia, Hanhai, Poly; Hongzhou: Xiling; Hong Kong: Christie's; Shanghai: Duoyunxuan.
Oil Painting: Beijing: Poly, Guardian, Hanhai, Council; Hong Kong: Christie's; Hangzhou: Xiling.

What to Buy

Buying Fine Porcelains of the Republican Period Is Promising. It is reported that the price of fine porceplain items of this period has gone up Ten Times in Five Years. Paying attention to the masterpieces is always wise. Trying not to be tempted by jars with a Chinese character, "Happiness," ornamentation is a must. Buyers should also avoid less than perfect items.

Buying Chinese Paintings by Female Artists Has Potentials: This can be an attractive market for new collectors and collectors with a smaller budget. Chinese paintings by seventeen Chinese woman artists of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) were first auctioned as a group during the first weekend of September 2006 in Beijing. Paticipated female artists are Li Ying, Ma Quan, Qian Yuling, and Liao Jiahui, etc. Subject matters focus on flowers, bird, and female figures. In 2004, a Chinse flower painting by Yan Yan of the Song dynasty (918-960) was sold for 275,000 yuan (US$34,375) in Shanghai. The painting of "Five Hundred Arhats" by Liao Jiahui reached 66,000 RMB (US$8,250) in September 2006 in Beijing. Another flower and Rock painting by the same artist was sold for 36,000 HK$ (US$4,600) in Hong Kong in 2005. The smoothly rising statistics suggest that the value of Classical Chinese Paintings by Female Chinese artist continues to increase in the coming years.

Buying Chinese Fan Paintings by Fine Artists Is Wise. Chinse art market analysists predict that classical Chinese fan painting has strong potentials. Chinese art collectors should pay attention to the performance of ancient Chinese fan paintings in the Chinese art market. Starting from the second of 2003, ancient Chinese painting in fan format presented itself as a strong candidate for Chinese art collectors. A fan painting by Wang Jian (1598-1677), Pine Trees in Valley, was sold for 770,000 RMB (US$96,250) in Beijing. A Chinese fan paintings painted or calligraphied by eight Chinese masters of the Ming Dynasty reached 101.200 RMB (US$12,650) in May 2004 in Beijing. In December 2004, a Chinese figure painting in the fan format by famous Chinese artist of the Yuan dyansty (1269-1368) Liu Guanda (fl.1280) was sold for 2420,000 (US$ 30,250), breaking the record of the artist in auction sales.

Chinese Art Market Watch

China Emerges as the Center of the Art Market. "A series of articles this weekend put the pieces together on China’s emerging place at the center of the global market for luxury goods. The New York Times documents the growth in sales of Rolls Royces in China from nearly none in 2003 to the lion’s share of the custom automaker’s production runs. In the auction market, the buying is still concentrated in luxury goods like wine and gems but art is beginning to fill in."

As Asia’s Emerging Economies Bound Ahead, Auction Houses Shift Focus : "Asia’s role in the market for super high-end luxury goods is mushrooming, reflecting an underlying shift in consumer spending power that has been creeping along for years, but which received a boost from the global economic crisis.."

Chinese Put Pressure on Art Market. Chinese economic growth is the driving force behind the volatile Chinese art market. Most important is the blossoming of a new generation of collectors in China itself. Five years ago, the art market's center of gravity shifted eastward: more Chinese paintings, old and new, are now purchased by Chinese buyers than by those outside of China. The major international auction houses are poised to open their own operations on Chinese soil. The global economy and a local rise in income mean that more and more Chinese citizens are taking an interest in art, for both aesthetic and economic reasons. These Chinese art collectors exert a powerful influence on the size and shape of the market.

Chinese Art’s Dominance of the Asian Market Chinese art accounts for the lion’s share of the Asian art market, both in terms of value and volume.

Snuff Bottles Dangled on Chinese Market Bonham’s will be selling a very large collection of Chinese snuff bottles in Hong Kong as they try to capitalize..

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