Hong Kong (CNN) -- Chinese artists are painting the globe red and the regional art market is no longer hostage to fickle buyers, the Asia president of auction house Christie's told CNN.
The Asian art market has
typically been driven by savvy investors and China's nouveau riche.
"Some invest in art as though it were a stock market, with artworks that
are virtually split into multiples of dematerialized shares," according to Artprice, an art auction research firm.
Hong Kong's "success has
been marred by the poor reputation of Chinese buyers," according to a
recent report by Artprice. "In Hong Kong, Christie's and Sotheby's have
both experienced non-payment problems that have led to court
proceedings... so much so that to avoid such problems, the major auction
houses are now asking buyers to pay a HK$1 million (US$129,000) advance
deposit for the more expensive items."
Deadbeat art buyers rise in China
Asia's art market explosion
However, Christie's Francois Curiel sees this paradigm changing.
"What was interesting this weekend is that with the exception of this picture ("La foret blanche II"
by Chu The-Chun) and maybe one or two others, there were no other
records," Curiel told CNN's Patricia Wu. "There were good, strong, solid
prices and it seems that the speculative buyers have left town."
Christie's annual autumn
auction in Hong Kong, which ended Wednesday, grossed $334 million.
Although art sales in the region were down by 15% to 25% the first half
of the year, sales in the second half of the year bounced back,
according to Curiel, Christie's Asian head.
Asia's growing art scene
is reinforced by various government initiatives and local auction
houses. "The relationship between art and money is totally uninhibited
in China and generates ever more ambitious projects," the Artprice
report says.
The "world's first financial center for art"
is under construction in the city of Xiamen and is expected to be
completed by 2014. The $260 million project promises auction sales,
exhibitions, appraisal services, galleries, art restorers and other
related businesses, according to the developer Beijing Huachen Auctions
Co. Hong Kong is also developing a $3 billion "integrated arts and
cultural district," in the West Kowloon district, according to a Hong Kong government report.
With a market of burgeoning art buyers, artists from the region are making their mark, too. Their art is being sold for record hammer prices
-- this year, a Chinese artist Chu The-Chun's work sold for a record
price -- the highest ever for this artist at US$7.7 million.
"Zeng Fanzhi and Zhang
Xiao Gang are now the two Chinese artists in this very elite list of the
top 10 living artists bringing more than $10 million in the world,"
said Curiel, 60, who is a renowned auctioneer in his own right.
"It was unthinkable five
years to think they will be in the top 10 living artists in the world
-- two Chinese artists -- but now it's done, which shows the interest of
Chinese contemporary art, not only in China but also in Europe and
America."
Five Chinese artists,
including Zeng Fanzhi, figure on Artprice's list of top 500 contemporary
artists in 2012, along with the likes of Damien Hirst.
For Christie's -- which
had global auctions and private sales totaling $3.5 billion in the first
half of 2012 -- Asian market share is skyrocketing. Three years ago,
Hong Kong accounted for only 3% of global sales; last year, Hong Kong
accounted for 20% of sales, Curiel said.
Hong Kong is now the
world's third largest art market by auction sales, according to the Hong
Kong government's investment department.
"Few years ago, it was London, Paris and New York," Curiel said. "Now, it's London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong."
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