The Art Present and Future: Chinese Mega-Collectors

For the last couple of years Chinese art collectors have become more and more prevalent within the art buying sector. It doesn’t appear to be slowing, as the new generation of entrepreneurs are cropping up throughout China and so are their ever expanding art collections. According to the Hurun Report (the Forbes of China) there are now close to a million millionaires in China and some 115 billionaires, second only to the United States. Christie’s reports that in 2012, collectors from their Greater China region (to include Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as mainland China) accounted for 25 percent of sales worldwide. What are they purchasing? They are largely focusing their investments within the Chinese art sector. Curator and dealer Johnson Chang of Hong Kong’s Hanart gallery found that the percentage of mainland buyers of contemporary Chinese art in Hong Kong has gone from only 15 percent a few years ago to an astonishing 85 percent last year. Chinese art collectors see the art purchases as very interesting investments and growth is anticipated to continue.