Commercial interests

Marketing has been the most frequently noted word behind the auction of celebrities' works.

Take Ma's painting for example, it is inferred that Ma's move is in fact testing a new commercial function of Laiwang. That is if the painting is successfully auctioned and has attracted enough eyes, auctions may become an applicable option on this brand new social networking platform.

"The successful auction of the painting laid a base for the platform to test its new function," said Guo Feipu, a critic specialized on the Internet industry. "It may further expand its functions to even test the water of complete commercialization of a social networking platform," Guo added.

"The value of Ma's painting can not be merely evaluated by the artistic standard," said Yue Luping, an exhibition curator.

"Its value should cover the brand value of Laiwang, and even Taobao and Alibaba."

According to Yue, Ma's artistic creation is actually an art of electronic business, and a fresh-new experiment.

"Andy Warhol (1928-87, one of the most influential artist in the 20th century) had long raised the idea that everybody can be an artist, and Ma practiced it on the platform of the Internet," said Yue.

Popular vs artistic

As leading categories in the market, calligraphies and paintings have also been chosen by lots of celebrities for their first artistic attempt.

However, due to their obvious reliance on the fame of their creator, these works can be easily be depreciated if the celebrities lose their popularity.

Compared to the average price for art works of emerging artists in China which is usually no more than 1 million yuan, the millions spent on the auctioning of celebrities' first art works is somewhat speculative.

"The most important factors influencing an art work lie in its cultural and artistic implications," said Liu Wei, a long-time avid collector of art works. "Celebrities may create an art work for fun, lacking good ground for artistic creation. And if in time they sink into oblivion, collectors who bought them may suffer the loss," said Liu.

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