Chinese art market on the rebound

A report from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business revealed on Thursday an uptick in the Chinese art market during the fall of 2023, signaling a rebound in collector confidence.

The report, namely MM Chinese Art Indices 2023, is an annual release of CKGSB's professor of finance, Mei Jianping. It indicated that Chinese art stands out as a resilient investment instrument, offering good inflation resistance and strong liquidity especially for renowned works by famous artists.

The indices comprise a price index, sentiment index, liquidity index and four new classification indices for ink painting, oil painting, modern art and contemporary art. Among those, the sentiment index saw a rebound in the fall of 2023, after a two-year decline.

The analysis is based on 371 artworks by Chinese and overseas Chinese artists, recurring in major auctions from 1988 to 2023.

According to an art market report by Art Basel — a global platform that connects collectors, galleries and artists — and financial service provider UBS, China secured a 17 percent share of global art market sales in 2022, ranking third globally after the United States and the United Kingdom.