The dream of a Chinese mass market in art is an alluring fantasy to artists and art dealers. Here Gonkar Gyatso, a Tibetan artists who has returned to China recently returned to China after 20 years in London, salivates at the thought of Chinese middle-class families buying one or two works of art for their homes:

He recalls a recent art auction held at a shopping mall in the city of Chengdu, where he’s based. “People were very enthusiastically buying all the paintings. But I’m not even sure if they were original works,” he says. Gyatso’s excited about the prospect of great art trickling down to China’s 1.3 billion people. “Could you imagine if each Chinese family hung two pieces of art in their home?,” he says. “It’s a huge potential even if it takes some time to get there.”

Art Basel: Chinese Show the Color of Their Money (Barron’s)