China cedes place in global art market to UK
According to the latest market report it had a 19 per cent market share in 2015
China lost its spot as the world’s second-largest art market after a 23 per cent drop in sales last year attributed to its economic slowdown and the government’s anti-graft campaign, according to the latest global art market survey.
But that did not deter Hong Kong auction houses from pushing their upcoming sales of works rarely seen on the market.
According to the latest The European Fine Art Fair market report, China was the world’s number three market with a 19 per cent share in 2015 – three per cent down from 2014 – based on the value of sales in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
It lost second place to the UK, which had 21 per cent market share in 2015. The US continued to lead with a 43 per cent share in the same period, four per cent up from the previous year.
Total sales in China dropped 23 per cent from US$14.5 billion in 2014 to US$11.8 billion. They have been sluggish since a 2011 peak of US$19.5 billion and 30 per cent market share – the world’s number one at the time.
Clare McAndrew of Art Economics, which conducted the annual survey, told the Post that while China’s economic slowdown, stock market volatility and the anti-corruption campaign contributed to the decline in demand, a lack of supply of top quality works was another reason.
She said the anti-graft campaign has also dented the reputation of art collecting and deterred the young middle-class from entering the market.
She also said as more Chinese collectors acquired top-tier Western works in New York sales, sales in US went up.
Despite the fall, Sotheby’s CEO Asia Kevin Ching was still “cautiously optimistic” about the upcoming spring sales in April, as the auction house still managed to convince collectors to offer works that had been off the market for a long time, such as Zhang Daqian’s 1982 monumental ink painting Peach Blossom Spring.
“During times of economic uncertainties, the challenge isn’t about finding the right buyers. We can still have record-breaking items,” Ching said. “But finding people who would give you exceptional objects to sell. We always have to keep looking.”
