The International Conference for the Promotion of Chinese Cultural Products-Program for 2018 International Forum on Artworks Trade was successfully held at the National Base for International Cultural Trade (NBICT) (Beijing) on October 27, 2018. The forum was hosted by the NBICT (Beijing) and Beijing Cultural Investment Development Group Co., Ltd., and cohosted by the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) and Beijing Service Center for International Cultural Trade (BSCICT). Professor Xu Zhenzhu from Kangnam University, Leoni Spiekermann, President of ARTGATE in Germany, Tim Hunter, Vice President of Falcon Fine Art in the UK, Zhong Junyan, the founder of Fantasy Story Incorporation in Taipei, Zhang Zhenglin, distinguished professor of CAFA, French Sinologist Astrid Narguet, and Wang Yin, the initiator of Dunhuang Culture Promotion Foundation delivered keynote speeches upon invitation. Chen Gang, Director of BSCICT, presided over a roundtable dialogue, which was attended by Zhao Li, Vice President of the School of Arts Administration and Education at the CAFA and the founder of the Art Market Research Center (AMRC), Zhang Qing, Deputy Director of the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Gan Xuejun, President of Beijing Association of Auctioneers, Wang Pu, President of Asian News weekly, and other guests.
In the speech entitled Asian Art Market: Present & Future, Professor Xu Zhenzhu first expounded his view that the substantial growth of Asian economy is the driving force of the development of the Asian art market. He held that one advantage of Asia lies in the extremely rapid growth of the wealth of high net worth individuals in recent years, and the other is the cultural demands of the large population in Asia, with Asia’s social development already transformed into the stage of cultural development. After three stages of development, the Asian art market is now led by China, followed by Japan and South Korea. Professor Xu then analyzed the present situation of artworks in all regions of Asia and their prospects: the Asian art market will present a “SEBETO” (SE - Seoul, BE - Beijing, TO - Tokyo) pattern in the future, China and India will become the driving forces for the growth of the Asian market in size, the transactions in Hong Kong will become more centralized and globalized, and the southeast Asia and west Asia markets will show growth potential.
Leoni Spiekermann’s speech was entitled The European Art Market and German Art Collections. Ms. Leoni first provided a brief introduction to the European art market from perspectives such as the global market turnover, the nationalities of collectors and the numbers of galleries in different countries. She then focused on the German art market to analyze the proportions of the primary and secondary markets and the categories of artworks, as well as the impact of the newly promulgated laws and regulations. Finally, Ms. Leoni shared the German art collections and the excellent projects ARTGATE has recently cooperated with.
Tim Hunter, in his speech entitled New Trend in the Global Art Market, talked about several major trends in the global artwork market: auction houses are turning traditional classics into contemporary artworks for higher profits; the art market is becoming polarized and globalized; the number and scale of international art fairs are constantly expanding; the art is becoming financialized, which requires mature systems and regulations; auction houses are making innovations such as private consultation, pre-sale and third-party guarantee, and auction sites are becoming increasingly like “theaters” to bring more benefits by transforming artwork auctions into artistic activities and social events; while Chinese collectors are buying western artworks, Chinese artworks are also emerging in the international mainstream market, creating a two-way flow; the prices of traditional classic artworks have rebounded, and although the market flow and scale are small, traditional artworks remain a stable part of the market.
Zhong Junyan shared projects of Fantasy Story in his speech entitled IP Operation and Cultural Trade. He believed that culture and creativity should be based on the field, which is not only a physical space, but more importantly a space where contents are generated. Therefore, artists and art groups will join in the space, which serve as a theater for content incubation and interesting life experiments. Culture and creativity, on the one hand, focus on the overall community building to generate new relational aesthetics, and on the other hand, it can combine with finance, such as fantasy coins, to develop the blockchain technology and show the influence records through points, with influence as the consideration in the future development. The point generation mechanism, core values, expected cooperation projects, the point reduction mechanism, application services, expected serial platforms constitute the logic behind our design. Eventually, cultural and creative activities can become influential situations independently, where people participate and play roles to gain influence. In terms of social influence, all actors and participants will become sharers and appreciators of the influence.
In his speech the Development and Trend of Global Art Trade, Zhang Zhenglin discussed the international market pattern with the North American, European and Chinese markets as three pillars. He stressed that the markets in Asia, particularly the Chinese market, are dominated by imports rather than exports. In the Chinese market, although its auction turnover ranks first in the world, its total artwork turnover is less than that in the North American and European markets. Although the number of Chinese artworks at auction is relatively high, the close rate is lower than that in the North American and European markets. Therefore, attention needs to be paid to the improvement of China’s artwork trading system (including a series of related services) and the cultivation of professionals, rather than only to the impact of the tariff system. On the other hand, the development of the international artwork trading in the future also requires improving talents’ professional ability and innovating trading modes.
Astrid Narguet delivered a speech entitled Oriental and Western Artwork Collection from the perspectives of curators and collectors. Believing that today’s international art market is the only mechanism that can bestow value on art, she took New York, London, Paris, Berlin and Italy as examples to compare with the Chinese market and illustrated the problems faced by emerging and traditional markets at the present times. The current art market presents three major trends: commercialization, globalization and financialization, which are interrelated and have given birth to a new value system in the market. In addition to auction houses, the Internet, exhibitions and dealers have changed the original art asset system in the process of accumulating or pursuing art commodities. In the end, she stressed that the development of a new “business model” might be a good starting point for improving the global business operation of the art market.
The speech of Wang Yin was entitled Display and Communication of Dunhuang Culture and Art. He first demonstrated the importance of Dunhuang culture through a documentary, and shared with the audience the uniqueness of Dunhuang culture by comparing it with other excellent cultural heritage. He then listed various activities to show the dissemination ways and important influences of the brilliant civilization of Dunhuang.
Finally, Director of BSCICT Chen Gang presided over a roundtable dialogue with the theme of The Plight and Countermeasures of International Art Market, during which Zhang Qing, Zhang Zhenglin, Astrid Narguet, Wang Pu, Zhong Junyan, and Gan Xuejun expressed their views and thoroughly analyzed the problems encountered at present by Chinese and foreign artwork markets.
Held at the NBICT for the first time, the International Forum on Artworks Trade this year is of far-reaching significance as it brought together experts, scholars, and business elites engaging in the research, management and investment in the fields such as the art market, art finance, art trade, art collection, art creation, and operation services, from countries such as Germany, France, the United Kingdom and South Korea, to analyze the current situation and trends of the cultural trade development in Asia, Europe and even the whole world, try to explore the measures for addressing the development dilemma of the cross-cultural art industry, and discuss the innovative modes for the upgrading of the cultural and art industries, based on detailed market data, systematic industrial theories, rich industrial experience and representative operation cases.
Practice makes perfect, and success depends on forethought. It is believed that this highly professional forum and its achievements will provide a theoretical basis for the building of the NBICT (Beijing) into a hub and platform of cultural artworks, and for the international marketing of Chinese cultural products; and serve as a reference point for the diversification and refinement of the Chinese art industry and its going out to a broader international market. The forum will promote the “bringing in” of international culture and the “going out” of Chinese culture, as well as the further expansion of China’s international cultural trade.
Established under the cooperation framework of China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, and officially licensed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Base for International Cultural Trade (Beijing) and the Culture Free Port of Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone serve as a national-level service platform for international cultural trade. Following the requirements of “The Belt and Road” development initiative and culture development strategies, the NBICT takes advantage of the airport bonded policy, functions and services to provide domestic and foreign cultural institutions with international services such exhibition and experience, communication and promotion, transaction settlement, incubation and cultivation, financing and investment, and warehousing and logistics, based on three functional zones, namely the Gathering Center for International Cultural Trade Enterprises, the Exhibition, Warehousing and Logistics Center for International Cultural Products, and the Trading Service Center for International Cultural commodities. With its construction and development based in Beijing, the NBICT is committed to serving the whole country and even the rest of the world, and developing into a center for global cultural exhibition, exchanges and trade.