Asia's largest art trade fair concluded on Monday afternoon with
reported on-site business volume valued at 52 million yuan (US$6.4
million), twice last year's.
The four-day 2005 Shanghai Art Fair attracted more than 55,000
visitors from home and abroad, 7,000 more previously.
According to industry insiders quoted by Xinhua News Agency
today, the records set have shown that the city's art market has
matured and that interest in investment in and collection of art
there has come into being.
This year's fair had three exhibition halls: a Gallery Hall with
modern and contemporary fine art for professional collectors; an
Artists' Studio Hall featuring original artwork targeting
Shanghai's emerging white-collar market; and a Seeking Treasure
Hall selling decorative art and ornaments for more casual
customers.
Sculpture was a new focus for this year's fair, and the
3.6-meter-tall "New Goddess" by French sculptor Armand Pierre
Fernandez (1939-2005), widely known as Arman, who died in New York
last month, featured alongside two other works created specially
for Shanghai.
The annual event began in 1997.
(China.org.cn by Li Shen November 22, 2005)