An (Art) Market With Chinese Characteristics

On Tuesday April 8th, a porcelain cup sold for HK$281 million ($39 million) at Sotheby's Hong Kong, setting a new auction record for a Chinese work of art.While predictions of a crash in the Chinese art market have been a perennial alarm since at least 2008, auction records continue to get broken at a dizzying pace.While the Chinese art that draws the biggest bids -and headlines -are more traditional pieces such as the cup and its predecessor, a bronze Buddha that sold at the previous Sotheby's Hong Kong auction for HK$236 million ($30.4 million), Chinese contemporary art should not be overlooked.At the same auction on Tuesday, the contemporary painter Zhang Xiaogang broke his previous artist record with a work selling for HK $94.2 million ($12.1 million) after intense bidding from five buyers.Cui Ruzhou, another contemporary painter, set an auction record at a Poly Auction in Hong Kong the day following the Sotheby's auction.The ink and color titled Landscape in Snow sold for HK $184 million ($ 23.7 million) after fees.While contemporary art still accounts for a relatively low portion of art sales volume, it's a rapidly growing segment: Auction sales of Chinese contemporary art increased by 76% from the spring of 2013 to November 2013.