Economic Growth Heats up Art Market

But unlike collector Guan, many business persons have already cashed in on this rising market. And now, more and more art galleries from outside the Chinese mainland are entering the market, eager to get a slice of the art market pie.

Emile Forg, owner of the ESP's Arts Gallery from France, is one of them. Hoping to find a partner to help contract artists for his gallery in China, Mr. Forg participated in the 10th Beijing International Art Exposition held on July 12-16.

Launched in 1998, the Beijing International Art Exposition, one of the leading and authoritative art fairs in China, reflects the growth and rise of China's art market. According to official statistics, visitors to the 2003 session totaled 40,000 and the transaction volume was 15 million yuan ($1.8 million), while in 2006, the number of visitors rose to 60,000, spending 80 million yuan ($10 million).

The prosperous art market has inspired many young artists in China. Dai Zhong, a 34-year-old painter, rented a space at the July art exposition in Beijing to exhibit his paintings. This is the first time he has shown his works in public.

Although believing that the current bullish art market is something superficial and some painters' works are selling only because of their fame, rather than their art value, Dai still believes that the increasing interest in art by Chinese is good for the development of artists.

"After all, no economy, no art," Dai smiles. He has also planned to hold personal painting exhibitions next year in Beijing and other cities across the country.

As to the potential bubble in the market that many critics are concerned about, Chen Zhong, supervisor of the Marketing Department of 51-art.com under the Artron Culture Development Co. Ltd., one of the influential art websites in China, is not so pessimistic. He thinks that the main problem now is just that the market is not mature enough.

"This is caused partly by the unprofessional judgment of some collectors, " he said. "The prices of some masterpieces have not matched their due value, while prices of some mediocre works are out of range."

That will no doubt change.