Chinese art is generating more international interest than ever
before, with unprecedented crowds of foreigners packing into a
series of Beijing auctions which ended on Tuesday.
Foreign buyers showed most interest in Chinese oil paintings
which are becoming increasingly familiar at art fairs in New York
and London.
At the Beijing Poly Art Auction Co Ltd's Sunday sale, 270 oil
paintings were sold for a total of 145 million yuan (US$18.1
million), setting a new record for the total price achieved at an
oil painting auction on the Chinese mainland.
"There were dozens of foreigners in the sales room," said
marketing director Ma Zhefei. "Previously I have only ever seen a
few of them."
The highest price paid by a foreign collector was 7.48 million
yuan (US$935,000) for Red Lotus, an oil painting by
86-year-old Wu Guanzhong.
It was exceeded only by Bathing, an oil painting by Xu
Beihong (1895-1953), which was sold to a mainland collector for 9.9
million yuan (US$1.23 million).
Works by cutting-edge Chinese artists such as Wang Guangyi and
Zhang Xiaogang are the favorites of foreign buyers, according to
Ma.
Memories and Lost Memories No 5, an oil painting by
Zhang, was sold to a foreigner for 1.54 million yuan
(US$192,500).
"Works by cutting-edge Chinese artists are very popular in the
West at present, but not that much in their homeland," said Ma.
"There is a wide gap between their prices in Beijing and those in
New York. Perhaps that's why foreigners are getting so interested
in buying their work here."
For example a portrait of a young man by Zhang sold for nearly
US$1 million in March at Sotheby's first-ever New York auction of
contemporary Chinese art.
(China Daily June 8, 2006)
