Guangdong Auction Industry Map: 30 Years Of Ups And Downs Of Pioneers

2020 is a challenging year for many industries. Last year was also a year of "collective tardiness" at national auctions. The usual spring auction was delayed from around June to September, and autumn auction was delayed to around December. According to the statistics of the "national auction unified business platform" of the Ministry of Commerce, affected by the epidemic situation, the domestic auction industry generally showed a trend of transaction setback in the first half of 2020 and "retaliatory rebound" in the second half of 2020.

According to the data, the epidemic situation in Guangdong Province entered a relatively stable period in March and April last year, and the auction industry also resumed work, but it was still mainly in the form of online auction. Due to the limitation of aggregation activities, online auction has developed rapidly. According to preliminary statistics, after the outbreak of the epidemic, nearly 100 auctions were organized through the Internet, with a total turnover of about 97 million yuan. The success of the online auction shows that the art auction market in Guangdong Province, which is affected by the epidemic situation, has set sail again and excited the industry. What kind of history and confidence does the auction industry in Guangdong, which has shown rapid response and low-key toughness under the epidemic situation?

Pre exhibition of Guangdong calligraphy and painting works auction. -Visual China

Auction of "Weishui history" in Guangdong

In fact, looking back at the whole history of Chinese auction, as early as the 19th century, auctions had taken shape in several major cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou. During the Anti Japanese War, there were even auction houses for old and new industrial products and imported old general merchandise in Sipailou, nanhuadong, Dongshan Guigang and other places in Guangzhou during the Anti Japanese war. However, if we want to trace back the real origin of Guangdong auction industry, we need to start from the reform and opening up.

After the reform and opening up, Guangdong has taken a new step in the market economy. There are two important events marking the beginning of China's auction industry. One is that in 1986, Guangdong first set up the first auction enterprise in China, the state-owned Guangzhou auction house, and the other is the first land use right auction fair of new China held in Shenzhen on December 1, 1987. This auction is the first time in China to transfer the state-owned land use right by public auction, and also marks the beginning of China's auction industry. Zheng Xiaoxing, President of Guangdong auction industry association, told reporters of the 21st century economic report that "these two events are not only an important symbol of China's auction industry starting from Guangdong, but also very in line with Guangdong's identity and status as the forefront of reform and opening up." On October 3, 1992, Shenzhen movable property auction house held "the first auction of contemporary Chinese famous calligraphy and painting works", which opened the precedent of art auction in mainland China. In the 1990's, Guangdong, which had a unique branch, even accounted for 40% of the national art auction share, and was in the limelight for a while.

Xu Xiwen, director and President of Guangdong Chongzheng Auction Co., Ltd., said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that Guangdong, as the forefront of reform and opening up, is the reason why Chongzheng auction house is attracted to take root here. He concluded that there are four advantages in the auction industry in Guangdong: 1. Guangdong is a strong economic province in China, ranking the first in terms of GDP over the years and has the economic "soil" of Fengwo; 2. Being adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, it is conducive to the circulation of artworks, the development of overseas markets, and the introduction of foreign investment; 3. The market share of Guangdong's cultural relics and works of art in the country is small, and there will still be a lot in the future Fourth, the Cantonese are more pragmatic. This pragmatic spirit has formed a trading atmosphere of valuing credibility and contract spirit, and the business environment is relatively superior.

It is with the courage to be the world's first "pioneer" spirit, Guangdong Province's auction industry once walked in the forefront of the country.

the matthew effect

In the past 20 years since 2000, with the rapid development of China's economy, the auction turnover of China's art market has been surpassing that of the UK and catching up with the United States. However, the former "pioneer" Guangdong auction industry has gradually opened up a gap in the auction of cultural relics and artworks by other major cities in China.

According to the international art market report released by the TEFAF European art foundation, in 2010, China's art auction turnover exceeded that of the United Kingdom and became the world's second largest art market; in 2011, China's art auction turnover accounted for 33% of the world's total auction turnover, beating the United States (30%) and the United Kingdom (19%), ranking first in the world. However, in front of the national overall brilliant report card, the contribution of Guangdong trade is slightly inferior. Some research data show that in 2007, Guangdong Province's share of the national auction market was 16%, ranking first; in 2008, it fell to the third place, only 10%. By 2020, the proportion of regional trade volume in the Pearl River Delta will be 7%. Beijing has obvious advantages, accounting for almost half of the auction market; however, the market share of the Pearl River Delta is not good enough for its economic status. In addition to the poor trading volume, the data also shows that the proportion of auction institutions in Guangdong is low. Among the more than 6000 auction houses in China, the number of auction houses in Guangdong Province is 780, accounting for about 11% of the national total. Among them, there are about 150 auction houses for cultural relics and works of art in Beijing, but there are only 20 or 30 auction houses in Guangdong Province.

Why can't Guangdong Province, which started the "first shot" of the art auction market, keep the "hot" of the art auction market, leading to the "northward shift" of the focus of cultural relics and art auction?

There are two main reasons for Zheng Xiaoxing's analysis: on the one hand, Beijing has a unique historical and political status, and has a greater variety of historical and cultural relics resources than Guangdong. Shanghai's maritime painting school, Beijing Tianjin painting school, Chang'an painting school and Jinling painting school all gathered in Beijing. The art auction market in Guangdong mainly relies on the "Lingnan Painting School" in Guangdong, which is only one of the numerous painting schools in China, and is smaller than the trading market. On the other hand, with all kinds of artworks gathered in Beijing to form a distribution center, the price of artworks naturally rose. Under the "Matthew effect", more and more good art resources flow to the north, and buyers also move northward. Zheng Xiaoxing pointed out that taking Huayi international, a leading auction house in Guangdong Province as an example, the total turnover of Huayi international auction house in Guangzhou in spring and autumn before this auction house did not exceed 1 billion yuan. However, after moving to Beijing in 2020, the first auction made a good achievement of 2.01 billion yuan. "The volume of auction markets in Guangzhou and Beijing is no longer the same size," he said

Xu Xiwen believes that the North shift of the center has a certain relationship with the lack of talents in the auction industry. "Beijing is a political and cultural center, which is worldwide, and has an absolute advantage in the accumulation of cultural talents. Beijing has a large market share, which objectively reflects its unique advantages. From this point of view, as an auction company in Guangdong, it is very urgent and important to enhance the reputation of the enterprise, create a good brand, be honest and trustworthy, and focus on training talents. "

Good policy, warm spring is coming

From the current situation, although the auction industry in Guangdong failed to form a huge momentum, but based on its own advantages, Guangdong has great potential to become a national auction center in the future. According to the data, after the mid Qing Dynasty, Guangdong was an important collection town in China. Many famous collections and important cultural relics in history were handed down by Guangdong collectors. In addition, buyers in the Pearl River Delta region are the third largest regional customer group of China's major auction houses. According to the 2019 China Private Wealth Report, the number of high net worth people (with investable assets of more than 10 million yuan) in Guangdong ranks first in the number of mainland multimillionaires. There are rich people and Tibetan groups in Guangdong, so the strong purchasing power behind it is to be explored.

In the fourth Jingdong auction Festival just concluded in August last year, the total transaction volume of Guangdong Province reached an astonishing 637 million yuan, an increase of nearly 30% over the same period of last year. Among them, Shenzhen has become the most active city in China, with 33.08 million shares of Shenzhen Xinya process becoming the "number one" with a transaction price of 218 million yuan. The people's Court of Nanhai District, Foshan City, bid fiercely for a collection of landscape paintings, and the premium rate is as high as 5800%. For the pragmatic and smart Cantonese, whether it is landscape painting, stocks, or real estate, the key to decide whether the bidder will sell or not is still the appreciation space behind their investment.

Looking forward to the future art auction market in Guangdong Province, Xu Xiwen and Zheng Xiaoxing all agree that they are very optimistic. Xu Xiwen told reporters that in the national strategy of building a large bay area in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, promoting cultural prosperity and development, building a cultural Bay area, and enhancing the cultural soft power of the bay area are important contents in promoting the construction of the Great Bay area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Therefore, as a part of cultural soft power, Guangdong cultural relics and artworks auction will also have considerable development. Zheng Xiaoxing also mentioned that in the implementation plan for comprehensive reform pilot project of building socialism with Chinese characteristics in Shenzhen (2020-2025) issued by the general office of the State Council last year, it also clearly stated that it would "support the construction of cultural art (non cultural relics) auction center applicable to international general rules". He believes that with the favorable policies, the center of the art market may move southward, and there may be a large number of art transactions in Shenzhen in the future. "Therefore, we are very optimistic that the policies of the central government and the spirit of our Cantonese people who dare to be the first in the world can make the art market of Guangdong create more brilliance in the spring."

When it comes to how to make Guangdong's auction market different from the northern auction market, Zheng Xiaoxing thinks that we should deeply cultivate the local characteristics of Lingnan. "Guangdong Province has unique market conditions, such as Shiwan Ceramics, Zhaoqing Duan inkstone, Chaozhou Chaoxiu, Zhongshan Jiangmen mahogany furniture, Shenzhen jewelry, etc. Take jewelry in Shenzhen as an example. Its trading throughput accounts for about 70% of the country, but its auction volume is almost zero. Therefore, in the future, our Guangdong auction industry association also intends to cultivate these art markets with Guangdong characteristics. Our market has such conditions. "

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