After three years of the epidemic, the Chinese art market set sail again this year and ushered in a full recovery. The 2023 spring auction ended last month, and all major auction houses have also handed in satisfactory answers. Judging from the overall auction performance, market confidence has increased and is basically in line with the market level before the epidemic. Since Paradise restarted its summer auctions in 2020, as of the spring auctions of 2023, the cumulative total turnover has exceeded 9 billion yuan. This is undoubtedly an exciting result for an auction house that has restarted for three years. On this occasion, Art Market News interviewed Mr. Zhao Xu, the founder of Yongle Culture, and discussed with him the development trend of the Chinese market after the epidemic, the innovation and breakthrough of the auction industry, and his planning and outlook for Yongle Auction.

01

Focus on international reverse

In 2020, Paradise Auction gathered a senior business team to set sail again and launched the 2020 Summer Auction, which was not favorable at the time when the overall external environment This decision is mainly based on two considerations: on the one hand, it is the confidence in the Chinese art market, which remains alive during the epidemic; on the other hand, it is out of confidence in Yongle Confidence in the quality of auction items and professional control, Paradise has always attached importance to academic research and followed the strategy of placing equal emphasis on the market value and academic value of items. He believes that the development of the industry and the excellent professionalism of Yongle Auction can work together to promote the healthy development of the Chinese art market.

When referring to the source of confidence in the Chinese art market, Zhao Xu said that the overall The foundation of the art collection market is good, the economy is developing rapidly, the proportion of spiritual consumption is increasing, and high-net-worth people have formed the habit of collecting, all of which have promoted the recovery of the Chinese art market. According to public data, the art market in Asia will develop significantly in 2022, and Chinese art auction revenue will rank third in the world. Zhao Xu believes that the art market has always been in a state of flux.He believes that in the next three years, the international art market will emerge from a relatively independent market, and the Chinese art market will also resonate with the international art market at the same frequency. All the way up and down, he is optimistic about the future development space of the Chinese economy, and even more optimistic about the future of the Chinese art market.

2023 is the first year of opening after the epidemic After the spring auction, all the auction houses handed over their answers after three years of dormancy. According to auction data, there are obvious signs of recovery in the Chinese art market. After three years of the epidemic, the Chinese art market has also undergone significant changes. Zhao Xu shared that from the perspective of the industry structure, the volume and price of all categories and sectors have risen together, and they have entered the stage of different collection sectors switching from high to low, and market styles changing. For example, The calligraphy and painting sector has entered a general cooling-off period, the antique porcelain and miscellaneous sector is relatively stable, modern and contemporary art has entered an upward channel, maintaining a strong growth momentum, and "post-70s and 80s" artists frequently set new records, has become a dazzling highlight of the contemporary art market, and this trend may continue in the next three years. Judging from the collection preferences and composition of collectors, collectors of all ages are more rational and have relatively mature collection concepts and knowledge reserves. In recent years, young collectors born in the 80s, 90s and even 00s have begun to enter the market. The characteristics of the younger generation of collectors are very obvious. They have diverse collection preferences and most of them are well-educated. Some collectors have overseas study experience and art professional background. Aesthetically, they have a more international vision than their parents. All of these have imperceptibly boosted the rise of the modern and contemporary art sector in the art market. Taking Yongle as an example, Our customers account for a high proportion of mainland buyers, and there are many young customers, and their collections often focus on the younger generation of artists, which also confirms the above point of view from the side.

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Zhao Xu believes that now wants to further develop Chinese art The market needs an international perspective. The Chinese auction industry has gone through 30 years of development along with the development of the Chinese art market. The Chinese art market has now entered a mature stage of development and is increasingly in line with the international market. The relevant business forms of the Chinese art market have become more and more perfect in the years of development, and the primary and secondary markets have become more subdivided, which has also spawned more transaction scenarios and service models, Zhao Xu believes that, This is a gratifying phenomenon. At the same time, The trend of the international art market has also promoted the development of the domestic art market. More Chinese artists and their works have been recognized internationally. This is a sign of Chinese culture going to the world inevitable trend. Yongle Auction focuses on the international vision of modern and contemporary art. While promoting Chinese modern and contemporary art, it also takes into account the development of international modern and contemporary art and introduces international excellent works, such as the last complete oil painting by Balthus The work "Cat in the Mirror III" debuted in the Chinese market in 2021, and the transaction price was as high as RMB 167.75 million, setting a new record for the highest price at an artist's public auction.

02

Innovation and expansion help development

China's art auction industry has developed relatively maturely, and its operation mode is relatively fixed. In order to expand a larger market space and improve customer service, Yongle Auction experience, explored a new development model. In September 2022, Yongle Auction and Phillips Auction will establish a strategic partnership. Zhao Xu believes that The combination of strong companies is conducive to complementing resources and magnifying the advantages. He also said that in the future, Yongle Auction will actively expand the overseas market of modern and contemporary art categories, and cooperate with more Establish contacts with overseas collectors and provide collectors with different levels of collection options.

The online art auction business has developed rapidly in the past three years. The online auction mode has broken the time and space constraints of traditional offline transactions, and the transaction frequency has become more frequent. Monthly auctions, weekly auctions, and daily auctions have gradually become normalized. goods market. Paradise has always held a positive attitude towards the digitalization of the art industry, and has continued to innovate in the field of online auctions. In March 2022, Paradise launched the "Yongle · Hongshe Cui Kai" Douyin auction. Up to now, a total of 59 auctions have been launched, with a cumulative total turnover of 136 million. The highest number of online users exceeded 6,000, and the cumulative number of viewers reached 640,000 The number of person-times has exceeded 5,000, and the number of fans has reached 855,000. At present, "Hongshe Cui Kai" has already belonged to the Douyin head antique auction account, which has boosted Yongle's online auction business to a new level. This measure is an innovative move in the industry and has further expanded the collector group and customer resources. . Zhao Xu shared with us that it is expected that in the next three years, online trading categories will be more abundant and trading methods will be more convenient, which will become an important part of the industry's development. In the future, Paradise will further expand the development of the field of art IP, gradually deploying traditional business to new business forms.

03

Strategic Zhuoyuan Diversified Layout

When mentioning that Paradise will further expand its international business in the future, Zhao Xu said , Yongle will keep paying attention to Western classics and popular contemporary Chinese pop artists, while discovering more new star artists. Paradise Art Space under Paradise will also actively participate in various art fairs and regularly launch artist exhibitions. The purpose is to break the scope of the secondary market, actively touch the primary market, and build a new art market The ecological chain is the goal.

Building an academic system will become another goal of Yongle in the future A key point of work, emphasizing academic excavation and linking up with a new generation of collectors, will also invest more energy in auction collection and academic planning. At the same time, we focus on art education and popularization, and strive to make every quarter's auctions high-quality works with both academic value and market value. Seize the opportunity, attract outstanding talents, recruit international management and professional talents, set up offices or resident representatives around the world, accelerate the process of internationalization, so as to promote the construction of the ecology of the Chinese art industry and promote the development of the Chinese art industry.

*If there is no special note, the pictures in this article are all from Yongle Auction

Producer: Dong Rui

Editor, Interview: Tina Xu
Writer: Hong Yuan

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