HONG KONG—The financial crisis has caught up to contemporary Chinese art. After a boom cycle in 2007 and 2008 that led many young works to sell for multiples of their original sale price, prices are beginning to fall: In fact, Chinese auction house Beijing Poly International Auction says business has dropped by about 50 percent. The recent past saw inflated prices lead to an overabundance of millionaire artists, which resulted in art being mass-produced, churned out quickly with the goal of earning money and not necessarily achieving artistic excellence, some observers say.  

Now that the market has come down, sellers are seeing buyers acting in a more cautious way; one thing they’ve noticed is increased interest in pieces that have stood the test of time, like antiques and ceramics from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Gallerists also note that they will be taking more time to slowly promote and build an artist’s reputation, to help them better pull through the next boom-and-bust cycle as an established artist worth investing in.

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