February 10, 2014

The article describes situation on a Chinese art market where mostly arts and antique forgeries are beeing sold. Compared to 10 years ago, the market grew up to 900 %, which Indicates a very fast growth of this market. One of the reasons stimulating such a growth is television with 20 programmes giving advices on how to collect and identify art items and earn easy money. But the problem is that nearly one third of the deals at auction houses haven't been paid. To reduce the number of such cases some precautionary measures such as high advances from bidders and creation of black lists were taken. Those measures surely could find their place on the Czech arts market. The article further shows the massive production of forgeries in China and their distribution. More and more scandals revealed. Along with the increasing demand and price, increases the number of museum thefts, grave robbery and black market sales. We had similar situation here, in Czech republic, is 90's when auction houses placed fake offers. The Chinese government withdrew licences of 150 auction houses between 2008-2011. The reasons were different, including sales of forgeries. How many shops were closed by the Czech goverment due to selling fakes? None. It is obvious that there is still a lot we can learn from the communist government which is aware of the problem. If there won't be any serious arrangements against selling fakes, the art market will loose it's credibility and fall.