New | Auction houses team up with Chinese institutes to help students master business of art
Sotheby's, Christie's team up with tertiary institutes to expand courses in art management amid growing interest in the market on the mainland
Chinese billionaire businessman Liu Yiqian, chairman of Sunline Group, has made a name for himself around the world for his investments in the chemical, pharmaceutical and financial services industries and – most recently – art.
Liu – ranked by Forbes magazine 1,533rd out of the current 1,826 billionaires around the world – and his wife, Wang Wei, have both proved successful at buying fine art.
Last November, he bought a Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Tibetan tapestry at auction in Hong Kong for HK$348.4 million – the highest price for a Chinese work of art. It broke the record he had set only a few months before when he paid more than HK$280 million for a Ming dynasty “chicken bowl” at another Hong Kong auction.
With mainland collectors now a growing force in the global art world and artworks by Chinese contemporary artists, including Zeng Fanzhi, highly prized around the world, two of the world’s leading auction houses, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, are expanding their tertiary-level art business courses in conjunction with Chinese universities.
Sotheby’s is to launch a master’s degree in art investment and management in China this autumn to cater to the growing appetite for art knowledge among increasingly affluent mainlanders.
The tuition fees for the two-year course, being run in collaboration with the Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University, are 298,000 yuan (HK$376,000).