Move over Francis Bacon. It is all about Zhang Daqian and Qi Baishi now. The 20th-century Chinese artists are the highest-earning names at auction in recent years. That is because China is the biggest art market by auction revenues, making its largest auctioneers – Poly International Auction and China Guardian – serious rivals to Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Both of the former are busy with large auctions in Hong Kong this season.
China is expected to account for as much as 55 per cent of the $11bn global art auction market by sales this year, up from two-fifths in 2011 according to Artprice, the research company. Beijing made a fifth more art sales through auction last year than New York.
Collectors in China are limited to the very richest, such as the meilaoban (coal mine bosses), and buying is driven more by the kudos of owning renowned and expensive – and mostly Chinese – artefacts than by investment returns.