China’s Art Market Is Not for Foreigners

China’s Art Market Is Booming – But Not for Foreigners As China’s auction houses expand abroad, foreign firms are tightly restricted from entering the booming Chinese market.

The demand for Chinese art and antiquities is booming. But despite the buying frenzy, China’s domestic market remains highly controlled, with the government restricting foreign firms’ access while aggressively encouraging Chinese firms to expand overseas. This market distortion doesn’t just artificially help Chinese auction houses – it could also fundamentally change the standards of the art market today. Today, China’s art and antiquities market rivals the United States as one of the largest in the world, with annual revenues of close to $12 billion – and growing. While sales in New York recently fell to half of their previous year’s level, they rose by 20 percent in China. This difference is even more striking given slowing growth in China and Beijing’s crackdown on sales of luxury goods.

This is so unfair, US dealers are alre3ady disadvantaged by the MOU ste department officials signed together with with China's repressive Coommunist regime. Let us all hope that the Trump Administration will perform a cost benefit analysis of such restrictions and their impact on various stake holders.