The domestic antique art market has gradually entered a period of decline, and the decline has not yet reached the bottom. Whether it is the news reports in various places, or what I have seen and heard, and the personal experience of cultural relics dealers, it proves that this is an indisputable fact.
It must be affirmed that the Chinese mainland the prosperity of the antique art market has played a positive role in encouraging the people to collect treasures for the country, protect the treasures for the country, promote employment, improve people's livelihood, and develop culture and tourism.
Today, however, this positive effect has entered a bottleneck. The performance of major domestic auction companies has generally declined, many small and medium-sized auction companies have closed down or changed careers, and many antique cities and their shops in various places have closed, closed or changed their businesses. The author chatted with a familiar antique dealer friend and heard nothing more than:
"Business is hard to do!"
"I can't buy good things!"
"Good goods can't sell at a high price!" Wait a minute.
In recent years, with the decline of the market, shrewd antiques, cultural relics, art operators, in order to reduce operating costs, improve operating conditions, judge the situation, have adopted the "Internet +" model, in the major websites, opened "network stores", the use of "WeChat" to establish a "WeChat" trading platform or auction platform, some cities have also created a "bed fair" large-scale antique art trade fair brand new model.
As far as the author knows, the "Bed Fair" has been in Changsha since 2012. It was founded by the Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics General Store in conjunction with local hotels and guesthouses of different grades and sizes. The Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics General Store has widely publicized and published advertisements through the national media to attract investment, and the hotels and guesthouses participating in the cooperation provide rooms of different grades, including presidential suites and standard rooms, and provide antiques, cultural relics and art works operators with appropriate preferential prices for the use and accommodation of antiques, cultural relics and art works operators. During the day, the goods traded are placed on the tables and beds in the rooms for visitors to visit and buy. This new type of large-scale trade fair model, until now, is still quite favored by antiques, cultural relics and art operators and related enterprises at home and abroad, and it has a great potential to rise.
Undoubtedly, the transaction mode of "bed fair" is unhindered, and the lower operating costs are acceptable to merchants with different strengths. When the author inspected Changsha, he found that the presidential suite of a five-star hotel had been rented earlier by Taiwanese merchants; the merchants from various countries in West Asia were all concentrated in the hotel lobby living room; and some standard rooms were even shared by several people. Undoubtedly, the "bed fair", a new model of this large-scale antique art trade fair, also has a direct role in promoting the prosperity of local catering, entertainment, tourism and other industries.
However, unfortunately, the "Bed Fair" is the same as the current traditional antique market, and most of the transactions occur between antiques and cultural relics dealers. Antiques and cultural relics dealers make profits by "stringing goods" with each other, using the price differences in different time and space and their respective customer needs.
The business model of "Internet +" and "bed fair" is a reform of the survival of the fittest. Although it is in line with the times, it also has certain results, and the effect will become larger and larger. However, this is still a drop in the bucket for the recovery and prosperity of the entire market. To return to the "bubble" and "prosperity" of the early 2000s, it is simply impossible and unnecessary. The key is to gradually establish an antiques, cultural relics and art market suitable for China's national conditions through the survival of the fittest, the establishment of relevant laws and regulations, and the reform and truth-seeking, so as to realize the "new normal" of antiques, cultural relics and art transactions.
The author emphasizes that it is impossible and unnecessary to return to the "bubble" and "prosperity" that were around the beginning of this century. Why? The reason is that the decline of the antique art market in Chinese mainland is made up of many factors:
First, in the past three decades, the final establishment and development of China's antique art market has been promoted by the spontaneous collection and trading behavior of the masses in the historical context of the lack of relevant laws and regulations and the lack of established or imperfect market economic system. The entire formation and development of the market has always been accompanied by the lack of legal norms, the lack of rational guidance, the lack of authenticity and false judgment mechanism, and the lack of honesty and trustworthiness.
Second, the unbridled expansion of the national real estate bubble is combined with antique cities and antique markets of different sizes, combined with the rise of museums that are indistinguishable from good to bad, resulting in an oversupply of the entire market, and a large number of social material resources and human resources are idle.
Third, the continuous improvement of the level of counterfeit production and the continuous expansion of production and the continuous improvement of market share, resulting in counterfeit antiques, cultural relics flooding the market, the country's major auction companies, none dare to declare and promise "fidelity auction, not real return"; no cultural relics market in the country is completely engaged in genuine antiques or cultural relics, there are always fakes mixed in between; including Beijing Panjiayuan, most of the country's stall markets are based on fakes or modern handicrafts as the main varieties. Such results have greatly dampened and curbed the positive energy of buying and collecting real antique art for a long time.
Fourth, the anti-corruption and clean government has reduced the "elegant bribery" and "money laundering" from a profit-making transaction to a high-cost criminal act with extreme risks, and the carrier function of using true and false antiques, cultural relics and works of art as the carrier of power and money transactions has been basically lost, thus reducing the market's demand for true and false antiques, cultural relics and works of art.
Fifth, the true and false high-end antiques, cultural relics and works of art in the hands of corrupt officials who have been exposed or not exposed have been hidden in the secret room, and dare not see the sky, and dare not or will not enter the market circulation for a long time.
Sixth, the media who do not know the way and the real or false experts who have been kidnapped by money consciously or unconsciously, and even deliberately, advocate national treasures and treasures everywhere, so that the price bubble of collectibles expands, resulting in a considerable number of collectors locked in high positions, heavy losses, and breaking the hearts of collectors, so that the overall market purchasing power of antiques, cultural relics and works of art has shrunk rapidly.
Seventh, in the real antiques, cultural relics and artworks in the operation, early into the market, in the process of receiving a large number of genuine, fine products of the "leak", trained the "golden eye of fire", and achieved a large number of fixed customer trust of senior cultural relics dealers, because, complete and exquisite antique art is more and more difficult to harvest, there is a general "reluctance to sell" psychology, there is the strength to treasure the fine products, waiting for Jia and sell.
Eighth, with the original intention of loving the carrier of ancient civilization, and hoping to collect a large number of white-collar "eye poison" senior collectors who cultivate themselves and invest in financial management, not only love exquisite antique works of art and refuse to transfer them easily, but also continue to look for complete and exquisite antique works of art in the market with very few opportunities with the mentality and skills of "picking up leaks". In their view, the fine works in antiques, cultural relics and works of art in this period are the most valuable and value-added functions at this moment, and the market is also in a good time to "pick up leaks".
Nine, the above-mentioned antique art market buyers and sellers of the "leak" mentality and "reluctance to sell" psychology of interweaving and entanglement, not only makes the general products in the market unloved, but also forms a difficult to find fine products, the transaction rate is low, and the transaction of the entire market is becoming more and more sluggish.
The rare "stock market crash" not long ago has caused a large number of white-collar intellectuals who love antiques, cultural relics and works of art to lose their desire to buy.
At present, the "overall downturn" of China's macro economy, the shrinking of the real economy, and the unsatisfactory employment situation will inevitably be reflected in the antique, cultural relics and art markets.
The decline of the antique art market mentioned above is certainly not a good thing, but bad things can be turned into good things. The decline of the market is a big or small lesson for the many antique art dealers and collectors who have long regarded antique art as "stocks" and tried to get rich overnight.
This lesson is that we must regard antique works of art as cultural products, that is, special commodities that give people spiritual enjoyment, and their final use value is spiritual consumption and cultural inheritance; and its value, like other commodities, is not hyped, but is determined by the value and supply and demand of antique works of art. That is to say, the determination of the price of antique works of art should be guided by the labor theory of value. If all of our antiques, cultural relics and art operators and collectors, in this declining market environment, learn to trade under the guidance of the labor theory of value, then the real antiques, cultural relics and works of art preservation, value-added functions can return to the essence, Chinese mainland antique art market can gradually develop in the direction of the "new normal", with the continuous improvement of collectors' identification ability and the continuous increase of economic income, there is still hope for the prosperity of Chinese mainland antique artworks!
Here, it is advisable to disclose the author's complete view of regulating the antique art market guided by the labor theory of value (this view has been used as a teaching content by some university economics professors) as follows, for the reader's reference:
The value of antiques and works of art is directly created by the effective labor of craftsmen or artists who produce or create antique works of art (including high-level and low-level labor, manual and mental labor, simple labor and complex labor), and ultimately by the labor of craftsmen or artists and the labor and antiques that produce such labor, works of art in the process of collection or acquisition, preservation, maintenance, inheritance, publicity, display, circulation of people's accumulation of labor.
(Note: The "product and sexual labor" mentioned here refers to the overlapping and cumulative combination of various labors in different spaces at different times in history, which embodies geometric growth and is different from the simple addition of various labors in the same labor process in the same period. Cumulative labor includes the collection of various kinds of labor in the same labor process in the same period and the means of labor consumed by craftsmen or artists in the process of production labor, the value of the means of production, that is, the condensed means of labor, the general labor of human beings in the means of production, and the accumulative labor of ancient antiques and works of art in the historical process of collection or acquisition, preservation, maintenance, inheritance, publicity, display, and circulation.
The amount of additive labor in antique artworks includes:
Section 1 The labour of producing and nurturing the producer or creator of an antique artwork, that is, the labour of a parent or a dependant, the labour of a parent or a dependant, an adult producer or creator of an antique artwork, can help us understand why, in the study or introduction and promotion of a particular art producer or creator, one often refers to the family background of the art producer or creator.
2nd ; The labor of training and enabling the producer or creator of antique art to possess a certain special skill and artistic accomplishment - that is, the labor of the master, teacher and the school for their apprentices and students in the transmission, help, belting, training and guidance of cultural knowledge, artistic accomplishment and professional skills - "famous teachers out of high apprentices", "famous schools out of excellent students", "masters and disciples strong", this can help people understand: why when researching or introducing and publicizing a certain art producer or creator, People always have to mention that the art producer or creator "studied under so-and-so master", "graduated from so-and-so school", and so on.
3rd; The child-rearing labor of the producer or creator of antique art - If the value created by the labor of the producer or creator of the art is not enough to support the family and enable future generations to live a good life, then it is impossible to engage in the production or creation of antique artworks, so the value generated by this part of the labor should be transformed into the value of the antique artwork and form a part of it.
Article 4. The labor of the producer or creator of antique works of art in the process of production or creation, which directly produces or creates the antique art itself, that is, its unique use value, is the decisive element in constituting the value of antique works of art. Since the labor ability and effect of different producers or creators of antique works of art are different , that is, the attributes of satisfying people's needs ( for example , official kiln products and civilian products ) , the difference in the value of their respective products or works is determined.
5th; The labor contained in the material resources consumed by the producer or creator of antique works of art in the process of production or creation is materialized labor - without this part of labor, it is impossible to produce or create antique works of art; due to the difference in the variety and quantity of material resources consumed by various antique works of art (such as the difference between mineral raw materials and chemical industry raw materials), it determines the difference in the amount of labor or value contained in various antique works of art.
Article 6. The accumulation of labor expended in the process of exchange, circulation, preservation and inheritance after the production of antique works of art - this part of the labor provides an economic basis for the collection of antiques of the same variety or artistic value of the same grade, why the age or inheritance is orderly, and the value is much higher than that of the recent generation.
7th; If the amount of labor consumed in the production or creation of antique works of art is large, the value of antique works of art is large, and the price in the process of exchange is high. Among the above elements, the second, fourth, fifth and sixth have the most practical guiding significance, and in the value identification and valuation practice of antique works of art, it is extremely important and necessary to fully consider these elements.
Although it is difficult to measure the size of the quantity of the above-mentioned labor that determines the value of the commodity of antique works of art in a certain unit of measurement, in the actual comparison process, people can fully understand the size of their labor.
The price of antique artworks is the monetary expression of the value of antique artworks, which is determined by the value of the antique artworks themselves, that is to say, as far as the same piece or the same type of antique artworks are concerned, their value is directly proportional to the price, that is, the value is large, the price is high, the value is small, the price is low; at the same time, it must be seen that the price of antique artworks will also be affected by supply and demand or restricted: On the whole, the supply of antique artworks is in short supply, the price is high, and vice versa, the price is low.
Such as Ming and Qing official kiln porcelain such collections, the basic situation in The country for many years is that there are more and more people like it (especially the newly entered collectors), and the non-renewable Ming and Qing porcelain is far in short supply, so the price continues to rise, so that it has attracted the "return" of overseas Ming and Qing porcelain; and the collection of gaogu porcelain, because of the restrictions and restrictions of cultural relics management policies, likes are not as many as Ming and Qing porcelain, so the price has been far lower than the international market for a long time.
—— The author hopes that through the introduction of the above theoretical views, it can help readers improve their ability to "pick up leaks" in the current downturn in the market environment, buy relatively good collections at relatively low prices, survive business difficulties or collect more and better antique artworks, and help establish a "new normal" in the market.