THE NEW ART MARKET

SHANGHAI (AFP) — Andy Warhol's pop art portraits, Damien Hirst's kaleidoscopic butterfly wings and Zhang Xiaogang's monochromatic families were on sale this weekend under the Shanghai Exhibition Centre's Soviet spire as the art world looked to China to sustain booming sales.The SH Contemporary art fair, China's largest international exhibition of its kind in its second year, is a front line of the mainland's fledgling and highly profitable art market.The four-day event, which concluded Saturday, is the creation of Lorenzo Rudolf, who aims to repeat his success as head of the Basel art fair in Shanghai.China's clout in the art world is growing alongside its economic power. Last year it overtook France in the international sales rankings after the amount spent in the country on art rose 78 percent from 2006.
It is now the third biggest market after the US and Britain, according to art market analysts artprice.