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China leads the global art market

(Ecns.cn)    16:03, March 01, 2017

“Five Drunken Kings Return on Horses” by Ren Renfa, a prominent painter of horses and also a high-ranking official in charge of water controls in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). [Photo: CCTV]

“Five Drunken Kings Return on Horses” by Ren Renfa, a prominent painter of horses and also a high-ranking official in charge of water controls in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). [Photo: CCTV]

China regained its title as "the world's largest art market" in 2016, despite a slump in the global art market in the past year, according to an annual report released by Artprice on Monday.

In collaboration with its Chinese partner Artron, the world's biggest database for art prices and sales estimated US$12.5 billion in global art auctions last year, down 22 percent from a turnover of US$16.1 billion in 2015. China meanwhile totalled US$4.8 billion, accounting for 38 percent of the world's business, the report said.

Despite coming second to the United States in 2015, China has dominated the global art market for 5 years, and has "clearly reasserted itself as the leading superpower" one year later.

According to the annual report, Chinese collectors are said to have an impressive bias towards traditional calligraphy and painting, which represented the majority of their purchases. The top lot in 2016 in China was the "Five Drunken Kings Return on Horses", a classical hand scroll painting by Ren Renfa in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The bidding reached US$45.89 million.

Chinese artists are also believed to be the main moneymakers in the art world, bidding for three out of the five top lots globally in 2016.

Hong Kong has reportedly become an unmissable place on the contemporary art market, although New York City remains its undisputed "capital," says the report.

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Web editor: Sun Zhao, Bianji)

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