China Art Boom

Although this painting of an eagle on a pine tree by Qi Baishi looks both traditional and ancient, it was painted in the 1940s for the then leader of China Chiang Kai-shek as a gift for his 60th birthday. It went under the hammer at auction house China Guardian in Beijing for 425.5m yuan (£40m, $65m), the second-highest price paid for a work of art at auction in China. The Chinese economy is now the second largest in the world and its fat cats are making fortunes. Money for art. The value of its art market has already knocked the UK into third place and at least one estimate reckons it has overtaken the USA art market.