The photography auction market in mainland china

Abstract

The photography auction market in China has experienced the early stage from the 1990s to 2005, the development stage from 2006 to 2018, and the current stages from 2019 to the present. In the domestic auction market at the early stage, the auction of photography was not rare, but the special session of photography auction had not yet been formed. Photographs were auctioned in the session of Ancient Books, Stamps, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, as well as Oil Paintings. In 2006, Chinese contemporary art rose rapidly: Sotheby’s held a special auction of contemporary Asian art on March 31 during the Asia Week New York in the spring of this year, the first large-scale Asian art special session in North America. In September of the same year, the photography work of Wang Qingsong, titled “Follow Me,” was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for 310,000 US dollars, which offers further drive to China’s photography market. Against the backdrop of the development of the markets both home and abroad, Beijing Huachen Auctions hosted the first photography session in China in November 2006, with a total of 365 lots auctioned for a total turnover of 350,857 US dollars. At this point, the photography auction market in China was officially established and entered the era of special session auctions. While Chinese contemporary photography works enjoy huge popularity in overseas markets, the domestic photography auction session shows its uniqueness from the beginning. According to the statistics of the highest-priced auction lots in the first three photography auction sessions of Huachen Auctions, the domestic secondary photography market favors historical old photos and documentary photographs more.