Auctions and market trends

The field is increasingly defined by a new generation of Mainland Chinese collectors, whose interest is supported by Chinese museum and publishing activities, and whose principal source of purchases are auctions.

Until the 1990’s the most significant auctions of Chinese art were held in New York and later Hong Kong, principally by Christie’s and Sotheby’s. A handful of committed dealers were also active in New York, London, Tokyo and Taipei. Now overseas participants are playing an increasingly small role, and market is increasingly led by Beijing-based auction houses. This has occurred for a number of reasons. International auction houses have not been given licenses to operate in China, and so are unable to work closely with new collectors, and deal in the growing number of export-restricted properties. They have also had difficulty hiring and retaining expert advisers while major Chinese auction houses have hired scholars and retired museum curators, as well as young graduates. With their buoyant sales records, Chinese auction houses also aggressively source abroad, seeking remaining collections of important Chinese Classical paintings. The only significant sales still held outside of Mainland China are Christie's in Hong Kong—and with most buyers who are Mainland Chinese.

Dealers are now less active in this market for a number of reasons. Important overseas dealers of the past few decades have retired without significant successors. Access to paintings has declined owing to both export restrictions and the preference of sellers to put works at auction where they often believe a higher return can be realized. The absence of dealers has however deprived the field of voices that are both knowledgeable and enthusiastic in ways that cannot be matched by museum curators and academic experts.

There are probably now less than 400 surviving paintings in private hands for each of the fifty most important artists of the 300-400-year Ming to early Qing periods. (We provide an analysis of potential market supply of surviving paintings not in public collections (link) and a chronology of the fifty leading painters of the Ming to early Qing periods, circa 1400-1750 (link)).

Courtesy of China Guardian Auctions Co. Ltd.