The Chinese art market's headlong growth over the past few years has left some awaiting what seems an inevitable bursting of the bubble. The emergence of China as a pioneer of the art stock exchange - a new mode of investment that it beginning to pop up around the globe - has only led to greater worries of sustainability. Now Reuters reports that the country's Tianjin Cultural Artwork Exchange, which was launched in January, has brought trade on its two top artworks to a halt, fearing that runaway over-evaluation that caused shares to rise by 1,700 percent would endanger investors. Read more...
Others will be more concerned about the phenomenon of art being presented as an investment vehicle and the effect speculative money has on the art market, fearing it will push prices beyond their long-term, intrinsic art historical value and increase the risk of boom and bust as speculators reposition art as a financial rather than a collectable asset.
