China holds on to top billing for art revenues

Total global revenue from art sales hit $11.57 billion in 2011, a rise of $2 billion from 2010, the best performance of the decade, according to Art Market Trends 2011, published by the market-information provider Artprice.

For the second consecutive year, China has established itself as the world's leading art marketplace. The country accounted for 41.4 percent ($4.79 billion) of the revenue from global fine art auctions, closely followed by the United States (23.5 percent, $2.72 billion) and the United Kingdom (19.4 percent, $2.24 billion), according to the report.

China also accounted for the highest auction results (with 774 higher than $1 million recorded in 2011, compared with 426 in the US and 377 in the UK), mostly generated at auctions in Beijing and Hong Kong. Beijing has become the place where the market pulse beats strongest, generating more than $3.17 billion, representing more than 27 percent of global revenue from art auctions. Behind Beijing comes New York ($2.59 billion), London ($2.21 billion) and Hong Kong ($796 million).

While Christie's and Sotheby's still represent the lion's share, generating almost half of the total volume of the global art business, Chinese auction houses have been catching up since the country's thirst for collecting began in the 1990s.

Today, China Guardian is the world's third-biggest auctioneer, generating $901.8 million from art sales and 7.79 percent of global art auction revenues in 2011. The Beijing-based company competes against a number of rivals, including Poly International, ranked fourth globally with $901.6 million, Beijing Council is fifth ($298 million), and Beijing Hanhai is ranked seventh.

As the leader of the global art market, China also boasted six of the world's top 10 best-selling artists in 2011. Among all of them, the contemporary painter Qi Baishi scored the year's best result with Eagle Standing on Pine Tree; Four-Character Couplet in Seal Script, which sold for $57.2 million in Beijing on May 22 last year.

You can contact the reporter at jiangxueqing@chinadaily.com.