2011 saw China's art market peak, taking home a whopping 2.1 trillion yuan, or about 340 billion US dollars. The figure accounted for 30 percent of the world's art transactions, surpassing the United States to become the top ranking art market in the world. But as we've just seen, 2012 saw the brakes slam firmly on.
In 2012 China's art auction market totalled 27 billion yuan, down 51 percent from 2011. The market had been steadily increasing from 2009, but now it seems there has been an abrupt cooling down.
Lu Lixin, art expert, said, "We saw a slump in Chinese art sales last year with sales down by 50 to 70 percent. But from the situation this year, the market is starting to warm up."
A two year frenzy raised the appetite of sellers, while the slump last year has made them reluctant to offer high quality art pieces to the auction market.
Zhao Xu, shareholder of Poly Auction House, said, "Because collectors are not willing to offer good pieces of art for sale, it's difficult for us to acquire good pieces."
Experts say, the huge expansion from 2000 to 2011 attracted many speculative buyers, but that the current slump is a natural process and that perhaps the bubble has burst.
Lu said, "China's auction market is merely 20 years old, while in the west, they have nearly 200 years of history with this. So for us, rapid expansion is sure to bring a lot of problems. The market has its own inherit laws. It is getting more and more mature."
Experts say, after six months of adjustments this year, both sellers and buyers are gradually returning to a more rational position.
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