Economic Growth Heats up Art Market

The thriving art market in China also shows that Chinese culture and art have attracted international attention as the country's national strength has grown, said Kwok Ho-mun, founder of Wan Fung Art Gallery, one of the biggest investors and promoters of contemporary Chinese paintings. This is clearly shown by high prices being fetched for Chinese artwork in recent years, especially for contemporary works.

For example, Son, the works of Beijing painter Liu Xiaodong, was sold for 154,000 yuan ($18,600) in 2000, but when it was resold in an auction in 2005, the price was 1.98 million yuan ($244,500), a tenfold increase in five years.

A similar case happened to well-known Chinese painter Zhang Xiaogang, whose work was sold for around $10,000 in 1999, yet in the Sotheby's spring auction in New York in 2007, one of his paintings was bought for $980,000.

Indeed, after about 20 years of development, China's contemporary art has gained a good reputation domestically and internationally. More and more Chinese are now appreciating the art as collectors. Sotheby's has even set up an independent department dealing with contemporary Chinese art.

"The contemporary art from China is the most favorite of collectors at various international auction houses, followed by art from India and then from Russia," said Lin Jiaru, Director of Sotheby's Chinese Contemporary Art Department.

Guan Yi, a Beijing-based collector, is one of the contemporary Chinese art fans in China. Guan collects contemporary artwork, especially large-scale works, but not just for investment. His collection began back in 2001, before Chinese contemporary art became popular, and has grown to such an extent that he built a 2,000-square-meter warehouse in 2004 (now renovated into a museum) to house his hundreds of pieces.