DIt has been thirty years since the Chinese auction market took off, which according to the latest Art Basel & UBS Report is currently the largest in the world with a 33 percent share (US 32 percent, UK 13 percent). On August 21, 1992, the state-owned antique shop Duo Yun Xuan in Shanghai, established in 1900, was officially registered as the first auction house. That had its professional logic, insofar as the art trade was previously only permitted to such state antique shops. But the economic policy upheaval of that year, when Deng Xiaoping embarked on his emblematic “Southern Journey” and private capital formation was encouraged by the state, brought out an entirely different and, as it turned out, more powerful logic.
In the years before, the young economist Chen Dongsheng, who received his doctorate from the University of Wuhan, had systematically thought about what makes multinational companies successful. His work at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and as deputy editor-in-chief of Management World magazine, published by the State Council Development Research Center, provided him with the necessary material. In particular, the list of the top five hundred Chinese companies that he initiated, based on the model of “Fortune” magazine, helped him in 1992 to become self-employed and to collect seed capital of the equivalent of 3.47 million dollars from ten state-owned companies for an auction house to be founded. In 1993, Zhongguo Jiade, which called itself China Guardian for international business, received its official license.
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