Keeping it real in China's burgeoning art market
Patrick Lecomte says global ambitions aside, its tradition of connoisseurship has a role to play
When in 1388, during the first years of the Ming dynasty, Cao Zhao, an author from the Yangtze city of Songjiang, published the Ge Gu Yao Lun (Essential Criteria of Antiquities), he had no idea that 600 years later, his advice to collectors would be the litmus test of a multibillion-dollar industry in 21st-century China.
In essence, what Cao explains is that a concern for authenticity should dominate all other concerns such as aestheticism when it comes to artefacts. The fear of fakes, forgeries and inauthenticity was prevalent in 14th-century China. As the international art press and business media has mentioned at length, these fears are present again today as Chinese auction houses aim for the international market.
In less than 10 years, China has become the world's second-largest auction market, accounting for 24 per cent of international auction revenues. Poly Culture Group - whose IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange in February raised US$331 million - is the leader in this fast-growing market, with sales of US$1.3 billion in 2013, which positions the company as the third-largest auction house globally.
Noticeably, Poly Culture's main international competitors who still lead the global ranking, Christie's and Sotheby's, have built their reputation and success on trust since they were founded in London more than two centuries ago. In the aftermath of the French Revolution in the 18th century, London was flooded with works of art, turning it into a global art hub at the expense of Paris. Since that time, the two auction houses have consistently been involved in the greatest auctions of artworks and collections.
Trust derived from unparalleled expertise defines the auctioneers' business model: an artefact selected by their experts and sold at one of their auctions worldwide immediately gains a label of quality and provenance among collectors.
If Chinese auction houses want to successfully aim for a bigger share of the international art market, they will need to achieve the same level of trust.