Event brings precious antiques home
Precious ceramics and high-quality jade will be in great demand at the fair this year, the general manager of a mainland auction house believes.
'The 2nd AIAA made huge progress in terms of scale and exhibitor numbers compared to the 1st AIAA,' He Xiangmin, of Guangzhou Fine Arts Auctioneers, said.
'With well-known auction houses from Japan, Britain and more, the scope of the exhibition has been broadened.
'We purchase ceramics, jades, calligraphy and paintings in AIAA every year. The purchase amount, solely for ceramics, reached hundreds of thousand of dollars.'
Guangzhou Fine Arts Auctioneers will be storing part of its collection and reselling other parts in the market where demand is largely expected to be driven by investors.
'Through AIAA, I get to know more suppliers and potential buyers.
'As for auction houses like us, we obtain numerous precious items from suppliers,' Mr He said. 'Besides, AIAA provides important market information, such as the trend of the antiques market and prices of various antique items.'
Mr He said he was optimistic about the future development of the Hong Kong market and AIAA. 'Before the 1990s, the arts and antique market was one-sided as large amounts of Chinese antiques were sold to foreign countries. In the 1990s, Chinese people gradually bought Chinese art pieces and antiques back from the foreign countries,' he said.
'The Chinese art and antique market has developed rapidly. However, it takes much time and effort for buyers to travel to Europe and the US. With AIAA, the buyers are freed from these [travel] troubles.'
