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The art market has been resisting quite well to the financial crisis which swept across the Occidental world in September 2008 thanks to the active part played by new millionaires from Russia and China who have decided to buy art to enhance their status.

Prices for prestigious art pieces have thus been rocketting with the help of these new tycoons who have earned some respect on the market whereas they knew little about art before the fall of the iron curtain and the decision by the Beijin authorities to adopt capitalist standards to promote China's economy.

In taking advantage of their close links with the Russian and Chinese authorities, many cunning businessmen were able to build impressive industrial and commercial empires to make their fortunes in no time provided they respected certain strict rules imposed by ruling circles in their countries.

After exposing their wealth through the purchases of impressive mansion-houses and luxury cars, these new tycoons turned their eyes on art for some good reasons, notably to comfort their social position but also to please their governments in promoting art in their countries or to pay them back for the advantages they benefited from them in repatriating home art treasures bought at incredible prices in auction sales held abroad.

Strangely enough, the well-educated people working with Sotheby's, Christie's and other reknown auction groups quickly shelved their scrupules in courting these new millionaires who mostly did not embarrass themselves with good manners as their presence the market was more than welcomed especially as the incoming financial crisis did expose it to a decline.

While the crisis affected many wealthy collectors in the U.S and in Euirope, Russian and Chinese tycoons finally managed to get back on their feet rapidly despite having suffered huge financial losses between October 2008 and September 2009, the main reason behind their recovery lying in the fact that the economic activity in their countries resumed faster than elsewhere.

Being accustomed with a kind of governing system where corruption and harsh methods prevail, the new tycoons in Russia and China mostly have the profile of cold-blooded characters whose main ambition is to make money at all costs, no matter the way their employ to earn it. Some of them, built like stocky wrestlers, would really scare most of the Western gentlemen attending auction rooms.

These new collectors have therefore shown a ferocious appetite for art, principally for pieces produced in their countries and also for works of high interest on the market. As a result, they played an active part in enabling the market to remain remarkably stable thanks to their heavy biddings.

They also have been active in creating new galleries in Russia and in China to exhibit the works they have bought and in promoting artists born in these countries in order to promote art there. In less than a decade, some Russian and Chinese artists, who were completely unknown in the West before the year 2000, have thus emerged as the new stars of the market while prices for Russian and Chinese art pieces have reached incredible summits.

The art market has therefore gone through a revival with the help of these new tycoons but this does not go without deep consequences. On one side, the great names in painting and in sculpture, meaning the famous old masters, the Impressionist artists, Picasso, Warhol, Freud, Giacometti have continued to attract high prices at auction while on the other side, the flabbergasting bids recorded for Russian and Chinese art pieces have been a cause of worry for the market as these could only be seen as speculative.

It has been hard to understand why a Qianlong blue and white porcelain vase, worth merely $ 20,000 two decades ago could now fetch over $ 2 million or why a Fabergé gold case, sold for $ 60,000 in 1995 could reach a price of over $ 500,000. This means that the rich Chinese or Russian buyers have not bothered to fix limits to their desires in getting what they wanted. Such an attitude has placed the market in a dangerous position because prices might fall suddenly one day or another notwithstanding the fact that its activity only relies on a contingent of less than 150 active buyers.

If Russia, China or any emerging country were to face an economic crisis one might fear that many of these millionaires would be facing brutal financial problems which would have direct consequences on the health of the market which was for long used to earn most of its profits through the sales of much less important pieces, now neglected by collectors.

In a recent past, knowledge has been an important factor regarding the well-being and the development of the art market which has now become highly erratic and uncertain as most of these big buyers from Russia and China have little background about art, their main motivation being to impress their rivals and show how powerful they are. Members of the former elite of the art market have had no choice but to accept these newcomers knowing at the same time that they would dispute their influence. Now the market has faced a new turn in becoming like a financial place where the pure love of art has become obsolete and where the role of real collectors has been limited as, like it or not, these new tycoons have managed to impose their choices.

Considering the emergence of a new kind of contemporary art in China, Russia, India, Indonesia and several developing countries with high economic potentials, the art market however seems to have found a new way to reinforce its position but if this is a reason for hope for certain observers, one does not forget that such a development cannot be safe if it is largely based on speculation.

Adrian Darmon