THE painted scroll on the right is by QI Baishi. The Chinese artist, who died in 1957, is currently the second best selling artist in the world at auction after Picasso.
Over the last ten years China has jumped from ninth place in the world’s art market to first place in 2010 according to ArtPrice, which has just published its report for 2010. The second strong trend to emerge last year is the evolution of the internet. Around two and a half billion users have triggered a dramatic acceleration in on-line art sales.
China is the largest auction market in the world, four of out the top ten selling artists are Chinese and 30 per cent of the top 50 artists are Asian.
ArtPrice reports that 2010 was rich in events: after the strong price inflation between 2004 and 2008 and the severe market contraction from October 2008 to the summer of 2009, a rapid recovery followed, taking the market to unprecedented highs. In short… the decade saw a very substantial acceleration of the market and a considerable shift of its polarity towards Asia.
After the previous art market meltdown in 1991, it took 4 years of patience before prices began to recover. This time round it took only 18 months. Between February and May 2010 the top-end of the art market awoke from its crisis blues to return the best auction results ever recorded in the history of art auctions. Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso both set new global art auction records between February and June.
The top ten artists of 2010 by auction revenue are: 1 – PICASSO Pablo (1881 – 1973) $361.5m; 2 – QI Baishi (1864-1957) $339.2m; 3 – WARHOL Andy (1928 – 1987) $313.5m; 4 – ZHANG Daqian (1899 – 1983) $304.3m; 5 – GIACOMETTI Alberto (1901 – 1966): $213.6; 6 – XU Beihong (1895 – 1953): $176.2m; 7 – MATISSE Henri (1869 – 1954): $174m; 8 – MODIGLIANI Amedeo (1884 – 1920): $139.8m; 9 – FU Baoshi (1904 – 1965): $125.2m; 10 – LICHTENSTEIN Roy (1923 – 1997): $112.5m.
The picture on the right by QI Baishi is entitled SWEET OSMANTHUS AND RABBITS. The ink and colour on paper, hanging scroll was sold at Sotheby’s Fine Chinese Art sale in Hong Kong on April 5, 2011 for 3,860,000 HKD or 347,310.15 EUR.
In China he is a household name.