Japan’s leading auction house acknowledges the obvious: China has become the center of Asia’s art market, according the the Malaysian news agency, Bernama:

“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 centre 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, jewellery and art works,” he said.

China Emerging as Global Centre of Art (Bernama.com)