New wealth's elaborate tastes

Since China is "nouveau riche", it is entirely understandable that the tastes of its newly wealthy tend to follow suit.

While this means big brand names from luxury maisons when it comes to contemporary choices, Chinese go for highly ornamental and richly decorated furniture and art deco objects at auctions.

"Emerging markets tend to go for the elaborate," says Christopher Payne, a furniture and sculpture expert, who is also a fixture on the long-running BBC program Antiques Roadshow.

"The taste here tends to be plus charge, which is more ornamented - thus Louis XVI."

Payne was one of many experts at the Xiamen free port auction and says he was impressed by the "piercing" and "challenging" questions locals posed.

"They have an incredible eye for detail." He says it's important to "build a bridge of trust" with Chinese buyers who, like anyone else, require guarantees that what they are buying is the genuine article.

"You can go around a dodgy French market and can get some pretty dodgy stuff," he says. "Someone in Beijing or Shanghai can make a bit of money, buy a nice piece for the wife, get burned, and that's it for life."

Payne says introducing Western auctions to the country and developing "trust and empathy" are key to the development of a strong and stable world market for antiques, since Chinese are among the major players.

(China Daily 06/16/2013 page3)