Asia Art and Finance Forum held at the Shanghai Tower

“The Asian Art Finance Forum (2nd) and Global Art Bank Executive Summit 2017” was successful held at the Shanghai Tower, a landmark building in Lujiazui Shanghai. The forum was organized by the Asia Institute of Art and Finance, and assisted by the Chinese Culture and Finance 50 Forum.

With the theme of “Art Investment and Art Consumption in the Age of Spiritual Consumption”, the forum focused on investment and consumption of art, inviting experts and scholars from the areas of art, financial investment, higher education and research institutes to discuss the operation of both domestic and international art banks and the situation of the development of domestic art banks, in order to promote the further integration and innovation of domestic art and finance.

At present, the world’s oldest and most profitable financial institutions have independent departments to provide full art financial services such as the identification of valuation, investment advisory, preservation, financing loans, art trusts, art funds, etc. According to latest Deloitte Art & Finance Report 2016, that up to 78% of wealth managers around the world believe that arts and collectibles should be included in wealth management services; 72% of collectors love to buy art as an investment. At the same time, 73% of respondents in the global market want art and other collectibles to be included in the wealth report, so as to comprehensively understand their overall wealth.

In China, there are a growing number of cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen have set up various types of “art banks”. However, for many the idea of an “Art Bank”, its definition, function, business models, and the links with commercial banks and investment banks are yet to be clear. “We hosted this forum and hoped to discuss the status quo and development trends of art banks at home and abroad, as well as the corresponding application of science and technology in the perspective of academic research and business to promote the cross-border development of domestic art and financial industry,” said Fan Yong, founder of the Asia Institute of Art & Finance.

In recent years, the development of the art market has been very rapid, and the transaction figures are very alarming. On the one hand, the growth of wealth has a positive impact on the art and collectibles market. Chinese high net worth individuals prefer to invest about 19% of their total wealth in art, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 25%. On the other hand, the rapid development of capital market, a large number of funds need to find a new direction of investment, but also to promote the rapid increase of the art market; thirdly, with restructuring of China’s economy, the consumption structure also has entered a rapid transition period, spiritual consumption has gradually replaced the material consumption that becoming a new pillar for the increase of culture and art market.

At the same time, the financial industry is facing increasing pressure of China’s economy restructuring as well as technology transformation, encountering great challenges. From the perspective of financial service industry, no doubt it also needs to expand the breadth and depth of the financial markets. With the preferences of wealth allocation among high net worth groups and management of cultural and art asset as the starting point, to innovate and reform in the field of quality financial services, revitalizing the huge stock of art “off-balance sheet assets”, combined with the market demand of the ecological development of art and cultural industries to promote the prosperity of the financial section and the development of the whole economy.

“Our society is undergoing tremendous changes, and people’s consumption habits and industrial economic models are undergoing profound changes too. With the rise of spiritual consumption, the integration of art and capital market will be the historic certainty. Financial services for the art and culture industry will be the key power of innovation and growth, which is a new composite field in China that requires a new thinking model,” said Fan Yong. “The establishment of Asia Institute of Art & Finance was under this background of our times, and strive to be an independent higher education institute which breaks interdisciplinary boundaries in a bid to cultivate cultural and financial talents supporting Shanghai’s efforts to build an international cultural and financial center.”