China's art market appears to have grown up. As curators and collectors descend on Hong Kong's enormous Art Basel fair this weekend, the appetite for art from the People's Republic looks robust. Yet minimalist cross-border trade sketches a picture of an introverted giant.
On paper, the country has become one of the world's largest art hubs. Sales in the Greater China region totalled $12 billion last year, or almost a quarter of the global total, according to figures compiled by art fair organiser TEFAF.
In contrast with globe-trotting gallery owners, however, China's art crowd increasingly prefers to stay at home. In 2007, international auctions accounted for almost a third of the value of works by Chinese artists. Last year, the figure was just 4 per cent. Most of those sales go to Chinese buyers: art exports from China were just 6 per cent of the global total in 2014.
Such introspection is rather unusual in the art world - in other major markets like the US or the UK, exports and imports more closely reflect the size of the domestic market.
Though China's isolationist preferences may be partly a matter of taste, pragmatism plays a role as well. Heavy customs duties on imported artworks make buying art abroad more expensive for Chinese collectors: levies can be as high as 35 per cent. The statistics also do not take account of the persistent problem of winning bidders who fail to pay for their purchases. The use of art as a channel for corrupt cash may also have inflated sales in the past, though China's anti-graft crackdown will discourage dubious sales.
That may explain why the market has declined from its peak in 2011, when Greater China was briefly the world's largest market by sales. Yet even excluding the international hub of Hong Kong, the region probably still accounts for around 15 per cent of the global market.
From the outside, all looks well. Galleries are bustling and auction houses are constantly breaking records for individual sales. But China's art market could be painting itself into a corner.
On paper, the country has become one of the world's largest art hubs. Sales in the Greater China region totalled $12 billion last year, or almost a quarter of the global total, according to figures compiled by art fair organiser TEFAF.
In contrast with globe-trotting gallery owners, however, China's art crowd increasingly prefers to stay at home. In 2007, international auctions accounted for almost a third of the value of works by Chinese artists. Last year, the figure was just 4 per cent. Most of those sales go to Chinese buyers: art exports from China were just 6 per cent of the global total in 2014.
More From This Section
Though China's isolationist preferences may be partly a matter of taste, pragmatism plays a role as well. Heavy customs duties on imported artworks make buying art abroad more expensive for Chinese collectors: levies can be as high as 35 per cent. The statistics also do not take account of the persistent problem of winning bidders who fail to pay for their purchases. The use of art as a channel for corrupt cash may also have inflated sales in the past, though China's anti-graft crackdown will discourage dubious sales.
That may explain why the market has declined from its peak in 2011, when Greater China was briefly the world's largest market by sales. Yet even excluding the international hub of Hong Kong, the region probably still accounts for around 15 per cent of the global market.
From the outside, all looks well. Galleries are bustling and auction houses are constantly breaking records for individual sales. But China's art market could be painting itself into a corner.