Buying Spree – Will China Own The Art Market?

“Facing an acute art shortage, the Chinese government plans to construct 1,000 new museums by 2015, including 32 in Beijing in time for the 2008 Olympics and 100 in Shanghai before the opening of the 2010 World’s Fair, according to reports in China’s government-controlled media. The People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, has so far targeted only Chinese art. Analysts say the army’s strategy over the next five years is to dip further into China’s foreign-currency reserves – about $711 billion, the second biggest after Japan, and growing – to buy and barrack celebrated Western masterpieces, often at prices above their auction-market value.”