Chinese mainland’s billionaire art buyers, who are taking the international market by storm this year, could be about to make their next move in Hong Kong this week.

The art world is at fever pitch after an anonymous telephone bidder, now believed to be Chinese, paid a world record US$106.4M for a work by Pablo Picasso at a Christie’s sale in New York earlier this month.

The purchase of the 1932 portrait of his blonde mistress called “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” was one of a whole series of art auction scalps by mainland Chinese buyers this year.

These collectors, many of them newly rich entrepreneurs, are transforming the fortunes of the art market, which last year saw auction art prices fall globally by 30%, according to the Mei Moses Fine Art Index, following the onset of the economic crisis.

The world’s focus this week will be on the The Hong Kong International Art Fair, where a number of high profile works, including a US$12M Andy Warhol and a Picasso, which could easily exceed that amount, are up for sale.

At the same time Christie’s will again be hoping to lure a major Chinese buyer when it exhibits another painting by Picasso this week, also in Hong Kong.—Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr. www.livetradingnews.com

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on May 24th, 2010and filed underArt & Collectibles, Connoisseur's Club, Latest News.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site