As The Truth About China's Economy Comes Out, So Does The Truth Of China's Art Market

A photographer takes a photo as a Sotheby's employee stands beside a painting by Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang entitled 'Forever Lasting Love', . (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

In keeping with recent reports that China?s economic slowdown has been, shall we say, kept under wraps, so, too, with China?s art scene.? Not only is the once-oh-s0-hot Chinese Contemporary market experiencing a major drop, according to officials at? China Guardian, China?s number one auction house, but the interest in non-Chinese art, often spoken of in glowing terms (particularly during the Hong Kong art fair) is in fact much smaller and less significant than we?ve been led to believe.? As art advisor and market analyst Clayton Press noted, there were almost no Chinese buyers at the Basel Art fair last week;? and indeed, I have yet to see any hint of a Chinese collecting boom at the other European fairs.

?Three years ago the market was very strong and prices very high, but it has come down because of economic strains and because it has been too high,? notes Wang Yannan,? China Guardian president.? ?It would not sustain on that level.?? Further, she adds, the real demand for Chinese Contemporary remains domestic, suggesting that early expectations? for a strong global market in? the material are fading.

Earlier this year, moreover, market expert Clare McAndrew, who reports annually on the state of the art market worldwide, acknowledged that many of the works sold at auction in Hong Kong and Beijing remain unpaid-for.? While China has been said to have taken over the number one spot in the ranking of art sales globally (replacing the US, which is now at number two), such allegations test the accuracy and truth of such rankings. If an artwork sells but no one pays to buy it, after all, it hasn?t really sold.? Depending on the number and value of such defaults, the actual strength of the Chinese market may never have been what we thought it was.? And now it?s falling further.

Worse, still, come new indications of corruption throughout the Chinese art market at the deepest level ? about which I will be reporting in depth shortly. Stay tuned.

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