Some experts believe that soon, China will become the center of world art market. They did not agree Forbes columnist Abigail R. Esman

Jobs Takashi Murakami's art fair
ART HK 2011 . Source: artinfo.com

Chinese art market have been constantly on the hearing: estimated Artprice, China's first place in the auction revenue in 2010 , Asian art collectors buy china for the big money at Western auctions, and at home, in China, regularly update records on the works of Chinese art . Some experts believe that the future of the world art market - in China. After a very successful week, the Asian trading Jonathan Stone of Christie's, for example, said that through the years 5-10 years, Hong Kong could become their main auction site . Others believe that the dealers in New York and London is too early to pack your bags and move to their galleries in Hong Kong and Beijing. Abigail R. Esman (Abigail R. Esman) in his article on Forbes website provides interesting arguments in favor of non-Chinese world of the future of the art market.

recently in Hong Kong ended art fair ART HK, on ​​the which, despite some successes (dealer David Tsvirner, for example, sold the work of Lucas Tyuymansa for a million dollars), most galleries were not too successful. On that is quite understandable reasons.

How would the world event may be an art work of a painter, as a rule, it is best perceived in his homeland. Andy Warhol collected more Americans of Italian writers often collect their compatriots - is craving for the cultural heritage of their country. Much the same happened in Hong Kong. Potential customers from mainland China, which both hoped to Western dealers, not bought at the fair everything - they were more interested in Chinese products. As a result, many Western works were sold to Americans and Europeans. Some dealers remain without revenue, someone had more luck. In general, it is impossible to say that the work of top-class at the fair flew from the stands.

Many Chinese collectors perceive Western art more as a commodity, an object for investment, while in the West, even modern commercial Western art became more serious and wealthy collectors, not only goods, but the subject of true passion.

Millionaires Celestial now actively buying, along with the national art and work in the top segment of Western Art - works of the Impressionists, Modernists, etc. Abigail R. Esman compares China 2011 and Japan 1987. In the late 1980's Japanese investors have just bought in batches in New York of Impressionist and eventually sold them to European dealers to the same, but cheaper. And many could not and this: pictures they were taken for the debts of Japanese banks, initially to finance the purchase. And banks, in turn, also sold paintings back to the West, where they happily snatched the European and American collectors to keep close to my heart.

But China, unlike Japan , survived, and their own art boom - the market of contemporary Chinese art. This market was growing rapidly in the early 2000's: first in Hong Kong and then Europe and finally in America, Chinese contemporary art for some time been a bestseller. However, this art boom, by and large, there was no firm foundation - Western collectors simply swallowed by a new wonder. Intrigue supported Western businessmen and ambassadors in Hong Kong, trumpeted to the rest of the world about the "cute" and "charming" local Chinese artists. As a result, prices for Chinese contemporary art have increased tenfold in the global art market. Investments in this sector were the easiest way to make a quick profit.

Many experts argued that the market for Chinese contemporary art artificially bloated: Some artists have bought back their own work to raise prices, other authors have suggested that clients dearly buy at a public auction one of their job, but instead in private to get three, and some were paying fraudsters to those inflated prices. According to ArtTactic, «light speculation," Chinese contemporary art market by 73 per cent higher than that of the western market. Independent curator Zhu Qi believes that up to 80 percent of transactions in this market were not real.

Not surprisingly, the financial crisis devastating impact on the current market of Chinese artists. Prices have fallen by about a third, and yesterday's champions were out of work.

Since 2010 the market of Chinese contemporary art began to slowly recover, but not to the extent that before. Collectors, among which are now dominated by Chinese, is now favored only by the author - whose work goes under the hammer for six to eight-digit sum. In early April, for example, was set a new record for contemporary Chinese painting: Zhang Syaogana painting "Eternal Love" earned 10.1 million dollars . But the vast quantity of Chinese artists whose works three years ago were in a price now and do not remember. Instead, in vogue again proven impressionists and modernists.

There is another argument that China is unlikely to be the main stage of the world art market. Free flourish of the art market will not allow the PRC government. Museum of Western Art is hard to survive. A Chinese dissidents persecuted by the state level - remember Aya Weiwei, who since April has been detained for alleged "economic crimes».

But quite different things in the Middle East, for example in the UAE. The Government has not only actively buying Western art, but also invests in the development of cultural institutions, museums, sponsors educational programs that promote cultural exchange with many respected Western organizations such as the Louvre and the Guggenheim Museum. West reciprocate: In recent years more and more Western galleries, especially in New York, are starting to work with authors from the Middle East (especially Iran) and to profitably sell their product.

AND recently. Some critics have questioned the statement Artprice, the Chinese art market in 2010 came in first place with 33 per cent share in the global auction sales, leaving behind the U.S. (30%) and Britain (19%). Experts Artprice In counting the results only from sales of works of art (paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings, engravings and photographs) at a public auction, excluding the results of the "opaque" transactions in the galleries. The activities of art dealers and gallery business in China is still underdeveloped, it is not surprising that the exclusion from the calculation of the data significantly increased the proportion of China and reduce the proportion of U.S. and European markets.

So for whom is the future of the global art market? The author of an article in Forbes suggests that, perhaps, for the Middle East. Although she personally more impressed by the good old New York, which has nearly a century strong and influential as anyone else in the art world ..

material was prepared by Maria Onuchina AI

Sources : blogs.forbes.com , artinvestment.ru