In the past ten years, Chinese paintings have enjoyed an average 25% increase in value annually, Hu said.
The biggest price increases in recent years have come in contemporary art--particularly Chinese paintings--and in 20th-century decorative arts.
In Kunming, she said, the fruits are sweeter, the mountains look like Chinese paintings and the weather is always perfect.
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His collection of contemporary Chinese paintings, an avocation he took up during weekends in the city and on excursions to Shanghai.
Both auction houses said their new Hong Kong galleries represent a key part of their plans to broaden the palate of China's art buyers, who are still more interested in Chinese paintings than they are in household Western names like Pablo Picasso.
Many of the poses and compositions were probably borrowed from Chinese ink paintings, and here they come together in a dynamic composition of black birds clustering on land and flying in midair.
This extends far beyond the contemporary art market, too, with Chinese buyers pulling ahead of the pack and also dominating at auctions of traditional Chinese ink paintings, ceramics, and antiques this year.
Some top artists have inventories of unsold work, and Chinese collectors frequently have hundreds of paintings, both representing potential new supply that can depress prices.
The Hong Kong auction, which will feature ink paintings, calligraphy and classical Chinese furniture, marks the first time a Chinese auction house will compete with Sotheby's and Christie's on their home turf.
W. Turner, cubist paintings by Pablo Picasso and ancient Chinese bronzes.
On view through 30 June in Malingue's white, sunny space are works by contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Huan, who uses ash to craft paintings and sculptures that denote the impermanence of human life.
The contemporary arena provided collectors with extraordinary choices, including a plethora of paintings by today's ''it'' artists, a cabal of young Chinese painters including Liu Ye, Yue Minjun and Chen Zhen.
They are part neighbourhood association centre, part temple, part community foundation, and almost always decorated in coiling dragons, paintings of Immortals, Confucian sages, Taoist demigods and Buddhist scripture, photos of ancestors and inlaid classical Chinese script.
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