Alex Errera founded a Chinese Contemporary Art sales site Artshare.com and has become an advocate for the Chinese market by writing for Forbes on the subject. His most recent piece is Five Myths About Chinese Contemporary Art. Here’s just one of them:
There Are No Rules
The Myth: Put a work at auction in China, and pray to be paid. Buy a work at auction, and pray to get delivered. Forget about rules in the private sales market. And good luck taking your claim into a Chinese court.
The Reality: This is changing fast. Why did China recently welcome Christie’s and Sotheby’s in their territory? It’s not for charity. It’s to learn and adjust. As Mr. Zhang, Head of the Auction Associations in China said: “Bringing Western auction houses was like putting a crocodile in a pond. It makes the fish swim faster.” As the Chinese market opens up, it will have to embrace more standards and rules in order to compete globally, not just locally. That will, in time, create a more transparent market.
