Lex Gets a Lesson: Deflation & Taxation More Damaging to Art Market Than Chinese Withdrawal

James Ipswich writes in to the Financial Times to argue with this particularly lazy and subpar Lex Column that that tries to warn of a threat to the art market from a “hard landing” in China:

Lex’s anxieties may be misplaced regarding the importance of China to the international art market, especially to western art, and in the comparison drawn between art and collateralised loans and subprime real estate. […] [B]ased on the facts, emerging country art-buying, by volume and value, is growing – but still relatively insignificant compared with the west. In 2010, art and collectable imports to China and Hong Kong were $810m, which was far below the US ($6.26bn), UK ($4.25bn) and Switzerland ($1.66bn), according to the United Nations. […] The art market has less to fear from a “hard landing” in China than from economic deflation and higher taxation in the west. The international art market, like other businesses, must look to most developing and some developed countries to ensure its continued growth.

Hard Landing and the Art Market (Financial Times)