Auction houses pin hopes on spring sales

Shrugging off international competition, the mainland's art auction houses are busy preparing for their spring auction season, hopeful that collectors will start buying again after the market fell heavily.

"Prices for art are back to normal, and so we expect more collectors to participate in our auctions this year," said Zhao Xu, executive director of Beijing Poly International Auction, the largest auction house on the mainland and the world's third largest.

He said the auction market peaked in 2010, boosted by the mainland's fast-growing economy and ample liquidity in the hands of entrepreneurs.

"The prices of some artworks increased 10 times between 2008 and 2010," Zhao added, noting that soaring prices were not good for the healthy development of the industry.

According to the China Association of Auctioneers, art auction sales plunged to 27.93 billion yuan (HK$35.01 billion) last year, a drop of 51.5 per cent from 2011, which itself was a 56.1 per increase from 2010.

"The correction in the market since the second half of 2011 has helped prices return to a reasonable level," Zhao said, adding that observers blamed the mainland's economic slowdown for the drop in sales.