INTERVIEW: China Emerging as Global Center of Art

Tokyo, Dec. 28 (Jiji Press)--China is emerging as the center of the
global art market, while the Japanese market continues to shrink, as western
art dealers go after China's newly minted millionaires, according to a
Japanese auction house chief.
"Western auction houses are heading to Hong Kong and Beijing in
droves," Yoichiro Kurata, president of Shinwa Art Auction Co., the largest
auction house in Japan, said in a recent interview. "China is becoming the
center of the global art market," he said.
The art boom in China is driven not just by the country's rapid
economic growth, but also by the desire of the people there to hold real
assets as opposed to paper assets at a time of growing distrust of paper
currencies, Kurata said.
"Wealthy people are searching for alternative assets, such as
precious metals, jewelry and art works," he said.
The art market began rebounding this year from the deep slump that
followed the global financial crisis. In February, Alberto Giacometti's
bronze sculpture, "Walking Man I," sold in London for 65 million pounds, a
record price for any art work at the time. Then in May, Pablo Picasso's
"Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" was auctioned off in New York at a record 165
million dollars, signaling the revival of the art market.
While the auction market boomed in the West, the market in Japan
has been stuck in a downtrend that began when the asset bubble burst in the
early 1990s. "Most Japanese art works are declining in value, except for
those produced by the most well-known artists, such as Tsuguharu Fujita and
Taikan Yokoyama," Kurata said. The Japanese market is now worth only 10
billion yen annually, he added.
There are concerns about the Chinese market, too. For one thing, if
the Chinese government decides to tighten monetary policy further, the art
market could cool, he warned.
Kurata has a tip for prospective art collectors. "It is risky to
buy works of little known artists in the hope that their prices will rise in
the future. It is better to stick to top-rated artists even if they seem
expensive."


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