Foreword by WAN Jie

WAN Jie, Chairman and Founder of Artron Art Group, and Founder of Art Market Monitor of Artron (AMMA)

2021 was an extraordinary year which witnessed remarkable progress in China’s economic, political and cultural sectors and created a favorable environment for the development of China’s art market.

We are glad to see that the Chinese art market has embraced the future with greater inclusiveness and openness, and through the use of digital technology. Innovation and integration of AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality) and MR (mixed reality) technologies have improved services for art exhibitions, online transactions, education and promotion etc., creating a better user experience. In the auction sector, emerging companies are well positioned and growing, while established companies are expanding their horizons. Meanwhile, an increasing number of young collectors have boosted transactions in China’s contemporary art market, and have shown interest in important artworks from Europe, America and the world at large. Furthermore, online auctions have augmented in number, quality and price range.

Artron’s history began about 30 years ago and the company has since evolved into an influential art group with a wide range of services and a large customer base in China. With its growing influence Artron is prepared to take on greater challenges. In spite of numerous changes in China’s art market and in order to overcome new challenges and make greater contributions to China’s art market and Chinese art, Artron’s corporate mission remains according to an ancient proverb, to “reach the breadth and greatness, and penetrate the refined and subtle to the end”.

We believe that new trends emerging in the arts, such as the popularity of NFTs, changes in the auction sector, millennials joining in art collecting and investment, will bring even more opportunities to the art market in China and worldwide this year. Artron has worked in close collaboration with Artprice to release the global annual report in order to highlight these developments.