In response to the call for cultural confidence, since the 19th National Congress, the state has revised and introduced a series of cultural policies and regulations aimed at promoting cultural development and safeguarding cultural heritage. These policies and regulations provide strong support for the development and revitalization of both traditional culture and emerging cultural industries.

The release of the Communiqué on Deepening Cultural System Reform marks the first time that the “cultural agenda” has been placed as an agenda item at a plenary session of the Central Committee, highlighting the growing strategic significance of culture. Consequently, the reform of the cultural system has sparked a boom in investment in cultural and artistic assets, and mechanisms for pricing artworks and platforms for trading them are rapidly developing. As a result, China’s cultural industry has become a new growth engine for the country’s economic development.

In recent years, the country has been steadily promoting the development of the art market. As the economy has grown, societal resources have begun to be capitalized, and the price of capital has surged rapidly. As a scarce resource, artworks have thus become financial products with significant investment value—referred to as “soft gold” and “money magnets”!

The Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of Cultural and Creative Products by Cultural and Heritage Institutions," aiming to explore China's cultural resources and industries in a creative manner, thereby better promoting traditional Chinese culture and fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of relevant institutions and social forces.

The frequent occurrence of sky-high prices in the art market is itself a signal that 2021 was a highly differentiated market. Beyond pricing, the uneven development of the global art market is also evident. The transaction volumes of the U.S., the U.K., and China together already account for more than 80% of the world’s total.

The “Research Report on the Development of Art Banking Business” published by China Minsheng Bank points out that more than 20% of China’s high-income population have a habit of collecting art, and they could allocate over 1% of their wealth to art collection. Assuming that 50% of the nation’s total savings—amounting to 16 trillion yuan—belongs to the high-income segment, this implies that, in theory, at least 80 billion yuan could be allocated annually to art purchases.

According to industry statistics, Barclays Bank analysis points out that “the potential demand in China’s art market exceeds 6 trillion yuan, while the current market size stands at only a few hundred billion yuan. Cultural and artistic investments account for 20% of total art investments. The average annual return on financial securities is 15%, on real estate it’s 21%, and on art collecting it’s as high as 26%.” This seems to confirm the “voracious appetite” of this market.

As their strength and economic income increase, the number of amateur collectors will grow, and the caliber and quality of their collections will gradually improve. From the perspective of collection categories, collecting antiques such as calligraphy, paintings, porcelain, and jade artifacts currently dominates the field of collectible investments. However, given the limited number of cultural relics and artworks passed down from ancient China, some collectors are now turning their attention to contemporary Chinese calligraphy and painting, oil paintings, sculptures, photography, and handicrafts.

The art market is developing rapidly, with astonishing transaction volumes. On the one hand, China’s high-net-worth individuals are increasingly drawn to investment—approximately 19% of their total wealth is allocated to art investments, and the compound annual growth rate of these investments exceeds 25%. The growing appetite for cultural and artistic consumption has brought tremendous development opportunities and investment potential to the cultural and arts market. On the other hand, the rapid expansion of capital markets and the substantial capital needed to explore new investment avenues have also fueled the swift growth of the art market.

Art funds, art trust investments, art-backed loans, art property transactions, and other financial instruments—along with pricing, wealth management, value appreciation and preservation, and investment vitality—have been increasingly integrated and refined, providing robust support for the future development of the financialization and securitization of artworks.

Art finance comprises three main sectors: The first is the financial sector, which includes private bankers, wealth management firms, family offices, and art investors. This sector involves either direct investment in artworks themselves or investment in related financial technology companies. The second is the cultural sector, encompassing private and public museums, as well as figures from the literary and artistic communities. The third is the commercial sector, which includes auction houses, galleries, art fairs, and other similar institutions. These three sectors complement each other and are becoming increasingly interconnected.

Chinese culture is the soul of the Chinese nation. Without a high degree of cultural confidence and without the flourishing and prosperity of our culture, there can be no great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. We must uphold the path of socialist cultural development with Chinese characteristics, unleash the creative vitality of the entire nation’s culture, and build a strong socialist cultural country!