Cash in China's Attic: A Culture Show Special The Culture Show

We live in a time of financial uncertainty.

It's been described as the greatest economic collapse since the '30s.

Hard times for everybody.

Well, nearly everybody.

The great auction houses have never had it so good.

Even in a time of profound financial, economic turmoil,

the likes of Sotheby's and Christie's have been reporting record profits.

And it's all down to one extraordinary, unpredicted factor -

the seemingly endless boom in the market for Chinese art and antiques.

China is embarking on a new cultural revolution,

in which art is playing a central role.

The country has moved from trying to annihilate its past...

..to embracing its imperial history.

Now the Chinese super-rich go shopping at the great auction houses...

..where world records are regularly smashed.

Two million and seven, new place, two million and eight, two million and nine.

Thank you very much.

And for some collectors,

buying art seems to have taken over their lives.

-Every piece costs money. Money, money, money.

-Yeah, sure.

But what can you do? You are like junkie, you know?

You are taking a drug, you cannot stop.

This boom has led scientists to use the latest techniques

to separate the fakes from the fortunes.

And it's made us in the West look again at the many extraordinary faces of Chinese art.

There's nothing cosy about the world of Chinese art and antiques,

it's a billion-pound business, with fortunes to be made and lost.

And the story behind it offers a unique window into the soul

of China itself, as it emerges as the next global superpower.

The story begins in a surprising place.

Not China or even Mayfair, but a sleepy suburban town in Middlesex.

I think many of us have had the old Antiques Roadshow dream,

the fantasy that that old oriental vase we inherited from Auntie Maud

might turn out to be a masterpiece of Chinese porcelain,

once treasured by an emperor, now worth millions of pounds.

Well, that dream actually came true here in Pinner.

A Chinese vase found during a house clearance in a London suburb

has sold at auction for a staggering £43 million.

The piece dates from the 18th century.

It's thought the buyer is from China.

'This staggering sale was unusual

'because it didn't take place at Sotheby's or Christie's

'but in a small auctioneer's near to where the vase was found...

'..a place used to dealing with somewhat more everyday objects.

'But the sale of this vase was to make this auction house

'very famous indeed.

'Chinese bidders flocked here for the rare chance to buy

'an object from the imperial kilns of the Emperor Qianlong.

'He reigned for six decades during what, for us, was the Georgian era,

'a leader so revered in China anything he touched is now seen as sacred.'

Right, the bidding is now £20 million, ladies and gentlemen.

At £20 million now. Any advance?

It automatically went into the top ten items ever sold at auction

anywhere in the world

and it was the only one that wasn't either a painting or a sculpture.

So, if you're talking about a work of art,

as opposed to a piece of fine art,

it is the most expensive thing ever sold at auction.

It's £43 million pounds.

Sold.

The price was just stratospheric, it bore no resemblance to market values

as we'd known them up to that time.

'No wonder people were surprised.

'The total price for the vase, including fees,

'was £53 million pounds, beating the previous record for a Chinese vase

'by more than £30 million.

'But sadly, for the auctioneer and the family that sold the vase,

'the story didn't end there,

'because, as yet, there's no confirmation

'the vase has actually been paid for.

'With a buyer based in China and no deposit put down before bidding,

'journalists began to report problems in completing the sale.'

It became clear after a short while that payment hadn't been made.

We made a few phone calls, I think other newspapers and press did,

to find out when he'd actually got the money, and it became clear that

the auctioneer hadn't been paid.

I have it on good authority firstly that it hasn't been paid for,

and secondly that ongoing legal negotiations are taking place.

While the story of the Pinner vase might remain unresolved,

one thing's for certain -

it was a landmark in the story of Chinese art.

And it woke the whole world up to a remarkable phenomenon -

the fact that Chinese works of art had suddenly begun to change hands

for truly eye-watering sums of money.

'Because, while the Pinner vase may not have been paid for,

'every week, Chinese antiques ARE going for record sums.

'What's exciting the media is that suddenly Chinese buyers

'are lavishing millions on artworks of every type

'and from every period of Chinese history.

'Maybe not the fantastical figure seen in Pinner,

'but when even a three-inch high snuff bottle can reach £2 million,

'no wonder the art market's eyes are now all turned East.'

It's no exaggeration to say that the Chinese art market has been

propping up the wider international art market enormously over the past couple of years.

It's acting almost like Viagra to international sales,

giving it the biggest boost you've seen.

And it is like the closest thing I've seen to the Californian gold rush within our industry.

'To understand why the Chinese are so hungry to buy back their past,

'you have to look deeply into China's ancient and imperial history.

'No place in the world shows this better than the British Museum.

'Its Chinese collection spans more than three millennia

'of the country's history

'and shows the sheer variety of China's genius for art.'

In China, they had this immensely sophisticated approach

to all aspects of life so that...

things that in the West were regarded for centuries as utilitarian objects,

in China, they became excuses for artistic expression.

Here we've got this absolutely stunning display of Ming vases,

Ming jugs, Ming bowls.

Each one is a sort of ceramic excuse for a wonderful painting.

Here we are looking at a display of bronze objects created...

Can you believe it?

3,300 years ago.

So much earlier than bronze casting was even dreamed of in the West,

and aren't they extraordinary things?

Again, we know very little about the religions

for which they were designed to serve,

but I think what they show us is this Chinese idea that

anything and everything can be imbued with profound artistic expressiveness

was there absolutely from the beginning.

'But what I've really come to see is far from the public gaze

'in the BM's conservation studio.

'This scroll, the Chinese equivalent of the Mona Lisa,

'shows that art has never been a mere pastime in China.

'Dating from the 5th or 6th century,

'it was used by emperors to instruct the Chinese people.'

So, Jan, give me some sense of just how special and precious

and extraordinary this object is.

Well, I think arguably this is the oldest Chinese landscape

-and figure painting.

-You mean, in the world?

-Yes.

I need to put my glasses on cos it's so sophisticated.

-Tell me what...It's called The Admonitions Scroll.

-Yes.

-Who's being admonished?

-Who's being admonished? Yes, exactly.

It is indeed the women in the scroll.

Every scene has women

and these women are being warned at what their wanton behaviour

could do to bring down the state.

What's going on? What's with the bear?

The Emperor in his palace would have had a bear

that should have been in a cage but broke out.

So the bear is about to attack him.

Now, he's sitting there

and he's sort of scrambling to get his sword to protect himself.

This is a courtesan who is doing

exactly what a courtesan should do.

She has put herself in the way of bodily harm

in order to protect the Emperor.

So we see that he was here with several women from his harem

and they were all seated around him.

The minute the bear broke away from his cage

and started to lunge towards the Emperor,

this lady put her way...

She glides with such wonderful delicacy.

Whereas, we have another lady who just ran away.

-She absented herself.

-So this is what you should do

-and this is what you shouldn't do.

-Exactly.

Women being admonished.

And being admonished in a way where they're being taught.

'The scroll also reveals how deeply embedded

'art collecting is within Chinese culture.

'Over a thousand years, its owners stamped their names on it

'to show their pride in its possession.

'These are the ancient precursors of those modern Chinese

'spending millions at auction today.'

It belongs in a Chinese mind-frame

that a painting is, in a way, a document of human culture.

So, it does document people who own paintings,

it does document who looks at paintings,

it has its history.

Is that a way of saying, "I love this object?"

It's definitely a way of saying, "I love this object."

We might think that's slightly peculiar. If you love it, why do that on it?

That's what I mean, in the Chinese context, paintings are also documents of human culture.

We see a painting as something finished

and you appreciate it forever in that stillness of how it was done.

In the Chinese sense, it is a document of interactions,

of like-minded individuals coming together to view things together.

It's right that you should assert your ownership and your appreciation.

It shows that you are one of the chosen few?

'But how did an object as important to the Chinese as the Admonitions Scroll

'end up in the British Museum?

'It's a question that takes you to the heart of why the Chinese are snapping up

'seemingly any relic from their history.'

After the Golden Age of Emperor Qianlong,

his Qing successors in the 19th and early 20th century

oversaw a nation ripped apart by rebellions and invasions.

As the dynasty entered its final death throes,

warfare laid waste to the Imperial city of Peking.

Amidst the chaos, works of art like the Admonitions Scroll

were taken out of the country by foreigners.

But in some ways it was a blessing that so many masterpieces left China.

From 1949, a desperate nation turned to Communism

and a new type of emperor, Chairman Mao.

He declared war on China's Imperial history to create a 'people's paradise'.

Mao's 'Cultural Revolution' saw zealots attack temples and palaces,

stuffed with the kind of objects so desired by Chinese collectors today.

Sacred statues were smashed and decapitated to sever all links with the past.

Somebody who witnessed the Cultural Revolution first hand

is Giuseppe Eskenazi, who's based in Mayfair.

Eskenazi is one of the world's most important Chinese art dealers.

'At the moment he's exhibiting these Chinese zodiac paintings.

'My sign is the rat.

'An animal more highly regarded in China than here in the West.'

-Do you know anything about the character of the rat?

-He is meant to be amusing, which you are!

And inquisitive, which is part of your profession.

-You're very inquisitive.

-I have to be. Otherwise, I never find anything out.

Eskenazi's shop is a showcase for the kind of traditional art Maoism was dead against.

When we went first to China, we were asked,

"Why are you interested in this feudal society

"that made slaves out of us?"

They could not understand why we wanted to go to museums.

To visit the old world, two people would come on a bike.

They would unlock the museum, this is going around China,

they would let us in and lock us in.

An hour later they would unlock and want us to get out.

We, of course, did not want to get out, we wanted to carry on seeing.

We all had torches because the cabinets were not lit.

Then, we were questioned.

I'm sure, at that time, as we travelled not by air, but train throughout China,

there were people questioning us, asking us, "Why have you come here? Why do you want to see these things?

"Don't you think you should see the respect," which was Mao,

"the respect we have for the land?"

Does it seem strange to you the degree to which that society has completely turned on its head,

the degree to which those Communists of old have embraced

capitalism with a sort of voracity that seems unimaginable?

When you consider the history of China,

Communism is such a short, small period in the history of China.

Were they not always capitalists?

Everybody wants to do well, everybody wants to earn more and spend more.

That is going back to their roots.

The single biggest factor in the Chinese antique boom is the rise of the Chinese economy.

When Mao died in 1976, the nation turned from Communism to the free market.

Capitalist China now has the second largest economy in the world.

And, unlike the West, it's still rapidly growing!

China now has almost a million millionaires!

This new breed of super rich are creating another 'cultural revolution'.

They've developed an insatiable appetite for spending their new money

on bringing back, on purchasing, acquiring,

the ancient art of their country's Imperial past.

But of course, the best way of getting to grips with this boom in Chinese art

is to travel to China itself.

Hong Kong means "fragrant harbour".

But despite its delicate name, this is an island that thrives on hard commerce

and since the late 19th century, it's been a place to buy and sell art and antiques.

British and French sailors would stop off here, on boats like this,

to flog off statues, pieces of jade, jewellery and vases

that they'd bought on the mainland, before sailing back to Europe.

Hong Kong has always been a place where East meets West

and, because of the rise in the Chinese economy

and this new found Chinese passion for collecting antiquities,

this place is on the up and up as a centre for the art trade.

'Certain areas of Hong Kong, like Cat Street,

'haven't changed all that much since the time of those 19th century traders.

'This used to be a bit of a thieves' market, with dealers, the cats,

'preying on unsuspecting buyers, whom they called rats.

'But with the present boom, these streets hold the tantalising promise

'that even in the midst of this bric-a-brac, even for a rat like me

'there might be a hidden masterpiece.'

Here we go. I don't want him to know but I've set myself a budget of 1,100 Hong Kong dollars

which is about £100. I don't know what I'm going to find.

Hello. Hi. I'm on a quest for a bargain.

-I want to find something that I like that I can live with.

-Yes, er...

-These are snuff boxes, snuff bottles.

-Snuff bottles.

They were made in the 18th, 19th century.

-They've come up in value a lot.

-They've come up in value because...

-Can I have a look?

-Yes, sure, why not.

This one, for example, I think, whoops...

-How much is that?

-980.

That's your asking price?

-Of course the quality and the...

-What's the figure?

-The figure, I think, is a scholar, or attendant.

-A scholar(?)

-Or attendant.

-I like the fact that it's a scholar.

-Yeah.

A scholar or attendant.

I think of myself as a scholar.

-I'll tell you what I do like, I'm a bit of a sucker for calligraphy.

-Oh, yeah.

-I love calligraphy. What is that?

-That is a paperweight.

-It's a paperweight?

-A paperweight, yeah. It has its original date.

-That tells us it's Qing.

And I think this is the name of the artist.

-How much is it?

-That one, 1,360.

-OK... 1,360?

-Yeah, 1,360.

-Can we sit down and talk about it?

-Yeah, why not?

I think, it's a nice paperweight, but it's only a paperweight, really. That's too much money.

So, I think, maybe...

-700.

-Oh, 700, too far.

Our way we do to the customer, it is all open price with all the pieces.

I try, it's not far away, not big distance from the original.

We do try to be friendly and courtesy to the customers.

-I'm not trying to be rude.

-Not rude...

How can you go down from where you are?

The best we can do, the best we can do is, er...

1,100? The best we can do.

-1,000?

-1,000 is just 100 for the token of encouragement.

All right, listen, what about in the sake of Anglo-Chinese relations, we say 1,100?

-You've been very nice.

-You sure?

-1,100, yeah, I'm sure.

-OK, thank you very much.

'It's easy to see how you could accumulate a lot of antiques in Hong Kong.

'And the trade is sustained by fanatical local collectors.'

HE LAUGHS

I've come to meet Mr Rolly Wong. I've heard he's a real character.

This is his house.

It's a kind of scrapyard-cum-museum.

-Are you Mr Wong?

-Yes.

-You've been doing some pruning?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cutting some tree. I tried cutting up a tree. Sorry about that.

I didn't expect to see you with a pruning fork in your hands.

HE LAUGHS

Sorry about that.

MOBILE RINGS

-You've got two phones going at the same time.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah? I hope you don't mind me surprising you like that

but it's very nice of you to let me see your house. It's fantastic!

How many pieces do you own?

I'm not really counting.

-Not really counting too much!

-Too much.

These are fantastic.

Do you think of this as a museum or as a store?

Already a museum.

-It's already a museum?

-Yes.

Which one of these ones do you particular like?

-Tang Dynasty.

-Tang Dynasty?

-Yes.

This would originally have been on a temple? Part of a temple?

I think they were originally inside a cave.

-Oh, wow!

-Yeah.

Wow! Amazing! Show me this.

This was the one you were pruning when I came in.

-You couldn't see the head.

-These are the ones, the trees were trailing down a couple of days ago.

We had a typhoon and some trees fell down, so we just tried moving out the tree.

That's one of the problems. If you have an outdoor sculpture park,

the trees will fall on sculptures when you have a typhoon.

-You can see how big this one is.

-It's huge.

What's the gesture saying?

It says, blessing the people and here is welcome.

So it's welcoming people into the cave to worship?

-Welcoming and blessing you.

-Yeah.

-It's helping the people for peace and love.

-Yeah.

These things were all in the cultural revolution,

they were smashed, destroyed, they were not valued by the government at all.

-Er...

-And now it's all changed.

The first thing, they will knock off the head. They can sell the head.

-They knock off the head, because of the vandalism.

-Right.

Does that make you feel sad in some ways, that you feel these things

-have been taken and destroyed?

-Very bad.

Why do you keep all the animals like this, are you superstitious?

-Yeah, a little bit.

-A little bit.

Is that why you have all the animals guarding your drive?

Yes. Look, look, look that way. Look!

My gosh!

'Rolly Wong is certainly proud of his collection.

'A pride matched only by some of his rather optimistic estimates of its market value.'

Economic question - how much if you were going to buy this now or sell it?

How much do you think it would be in Hong Kong dollar?

Hong Kong dollars?

Maybe, er...

Four...

Four... five billion.

-Billion?

-Billion.

Hang on, so that's 5,000 million Hong Kong dollars.

£500 million?

-Yes.

-Seriously?

-Over £500 million.

-1 billion?

-Yes.

And it's sitting in your car park, garden area?

'It's actually hard to know how much this collection is worth,

'not least because of ancient Chinese reservations about buying tomb and cave statues.'

-How many Bentleys have you got?

-Er, eight.

-Eight Bentleys.

-Yes.

'Reeling from the spectacle of his garden,

'I'm curious to see what delights await me inside Rolly's house.'

-I don't believe it!

-Believe it.

HE LAUGHS

-Are you serious?

-No.

You're a man who's been crowded out by his own art collection.

Wow, it's like a kind of...

Wow! I can't believe it.

I'm exhausted after that tour around your collection.

I'm totally exhausted.

Now, you've given me a very nice cup of tea but...

-Chinese tea.

-I'm getting very nervous now.

-Don't tell me, the teacup is probably worth £2 million.

-No.

I tell you, I've seen some cups and saucers at Sotheby's...

-They're from English.

-That's all right, then.

Cheers! Tell me more about...

-about why you love Chinese art.

-Why like Chinese art?

-Yeah.

Because I'm Chinese.

Because, erm...

Every, er...

..different nation, they love their own culture

because it's in their blood.

That's why China, up today now,

the people starting, discovering why China getting so big.

So strong... Because their culture.

So far, in my knowledge, antiquity only go up.

It's gone up by 100 times.

Stay, might be 1,000 times later.

Why?

Because the heritage, the culture is history... Past.

-Never come back again.

-Mmm.

The collection, only so much, limitless.

Don't you think when we get to the point

where almost any beautiful ceramic

associated with almost any significant Chinese Emperor,

costing...

20 million... Isn't there a ceiling, isn't there a limit?

20 million for a vase. 30 million, 50 million?

When does it stop?

What do you think?

What's a ceiling?

Only you make the ceiling.

I never see the ceiling.

-There is no ceiling?

-No ceiling.

Nobody can stopping how much money you can make.

No ceiling.

Only how much you can go broke, yes.

And the limit, ceil...

Where you are growing, no limit.

-So there's a floor, but there's no ceiling.

-No.

Thank you.

'In the past decade, there really has been no ceiling on the economic growth of Hong Kong.

'It's a global trading powerhouse.

'And you can't underestimate how important the business of art is to the island.

'This is Fine Art Asia, an annual event in Hong Kong,

'and one of the world's biggest Chinese antiques fairs.

'Beginning in 2006 as a much more humble affair,

'it's grown six-fold in size in just a few years.

'With more than 80 stalls, dealers come from around the world

'to exhibit the finest works of Chinese art, in every medium.'

I've been wandering around the Asian art fair.

It's a huge labyrinth of Chinese art, with a million different facets to it.

I played a little game with myself. I picked out four things that I think are really stunning.

I picked them out without knowing how much they cost.

Then I made enquiries.

This is number one. It's a 19th century, stunning Imperial robe.

It's brown, not yellow. If it was yellow it'd be really valuable

because yellow was the colour of the Emperor.

This means it was probably worn by a prince.

It's got all this wonderful Chinese symbolism.

Peony, the flower of nobility because they're hard to cultivate.

Here we've got the earth, the waters, the clouds...

Symbolically, it represents the whole universe.

There's a lovely surprise inside.

There are nine dragons in all,

the ninth dragon, only the prince himself sees.

Surprisingly... I think this is a wonderful object,

Imperial provenance - fabulous.

Yet, surprisingly, this is only, and I say, "only" 300,000 Hong Kong dollar

which is £30,000.

Object number two, I think this is stunning.

I was just walking past here and I just saw it.

There it is.

Isn't that fantastic?

This is Eastern Wei, that's 6th century,

and it's part of a Buddhist stela.

It's just fantastic, look at that carving.

Look at that detail, you can feel that body of the Buddha.

Look what happens when you turn it round.

I love this.

All these other mini Buddhas.

And these plaques were for the names of the people who had paid for the statue.

Isn't that fantastic?

A beautiful object.

But...

It's only 400... Obviously the price rise in Chinese art has got to me

because I'm saying it's "only" 400,000 Hong Kong dollars, ie it's only £40,000.

By the standards again of the mania for Chinese ceramics, for example,

that strikes me as very cheap.

I think the reason for it is that the Chinese themselves consider fragments of statues...

They don't have the cult of the fragment, like we do in the West.

They don't see the beauty of the fragment.

They consider a Buddha without a head to be an unlucky object, hence the low price.

If I had 40 grand, I might buy it.

This is fantastic, can I turn it around again?

I like the other side.

This is my object number three, it's quite heavy, isn't it?

-Argh!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

We're manhandling it.

This is fantastic. This is from what they call the minority territories.

There's this area in the middle of China that developed in complete isolation from the rest

for thousands of years. This object is probably about 3,000 years old.

It's a cult ritual object, it's a bell of some kind,

sounded in some kind of ritual, we don't know what.

It takes you to another era of Chinese sculpture.

This is almost Bronze Age sculpture.

Fantastic with this schematised face of an angry animal,

possibly some ritual beast, we don't know.

Price of this?

Mmm... Seven million Hong Kong dollars.

They're going up, £700,000.

This is object number four.

The best of all, look at this.

At first you think, "What on earth is it?"

This photograph's really good.

That's actually what it is, it's a bed.

He's exploded it for the display, so you can understand how it was made.

What an incredible thing!

Look at it. It's Ming Dynasty, so it's 16th century.

I suppose in our terms that would be Renaissance, the century of Michelangelo.

But, this... This bed, I don't know who it was made for exactly,

but there's this Chinese cult of nature, the idea that the scholar,

the man of learning, has to retreat to nature,

retreat to the wilderness, be in touch with nature in order to touch creativity.

Erm, maybe this bed belonged to somebody who couldn't, perhaps a civil servant or statesman.

What he's done is brought nature indoors in the form of these wonderful, extraordinary

slivers of marble that have been cut back.

They've rubbed the marble back, to find the patterns within.

At some places they've rubbed them back to a degree

and other places they rubbed them back quite deeply,

in order to bring out these amazing abstract depictions of nature...

Mountain, forest, river.

Absolutely stunning, sensational object.

It takes you right to the heart of that scholastic Chinese culture.

The students of Confucius, and so on and so forth.

Just wonderful... Unfortunately, one problem, there's a high price tag.

It's 56 million Hong Kong dollars.

Typical! My favourite thing in the whole fair, 56 million Hong Kong dollars - five million quid!

'The dealer who owns this bed has been trading in Chinese furniture for more than 20 years.'

How long have you owned the bed, as a matter of interest?

The same time that I first joined the business, late 1980s.

-You've had that for a long time.

-Yes.

-I bet you're glad you never sold it then.

-Exactly!

We pay attention on it, but we try to hide it somewhere in the warehouse,

maybe somewhere at the back.

Can I dare to ask you how much you paid for it?

In pounds it was like, I don't know, £2,000, £3,000.

HE LAUGHS

So, let me get this straight.

Your business bought it for 2,000 quid and now it's five million quid.

-Yeah.

-I'm going to shake your hand again on that.

I think it's an absolutely stunning thing.

-I'm happy. I'm happy.

-A really beautiful, rare, super thing.

Exactly!

'Andy Hei is also the director of Fine Art Asia

'and the event's success shows how Hong Kong's place

'in the international art market is shifting.'

Could there ever be a day where Hong Kong is more important to the art market

than London or New York? Is that possible?

Definitely it is possible.

Actually it is starting, it's happening just like the art fair here.

I'll put you on the spot. Do you think that Hong Kong...

-I think...

-..is going to overtake London, Paris and New York?

-When we put this process in order...

-Yes or no?

-Yes.

Yes, definitely.

We used to say, London, New York, Hong Kong in order.

Now we put it this way, Hong Kong, London, New York.

-You think it's happened already?

-It's happened already. You can check with the peoples on the floor.

The biggest single presence at the fair is the auctioneers, Sotheby's.

They're gearing up for a big auction.

Each of these objects is about to go under the hammer.

But what makes a piece of pottery into a £1 million masterpiece for a Chinese buyer?

'Kevin Ching, head of Sotheby's Asian division, explains

'that little has changed since the days of the Admonitions Scroll.

'The value of any object is affected by whoever previously owned it.'

What contributes to the value of art is not only artistic value but provenance.

What can be better than an object

that was once part of the Emperor's private life?

It was with the Emperor day and night and now you can have it.

The modern emperors, in the commercial world of China,

the new emperors of China are now playing with Imperial objects.

If I put you on the spot and said, just imagine for a minute that you are collecting something tonight,

what is it... Tell me your Desert Island object from this forthcoming sale.

Then I would bring you over and show you this beautiful vase.

Wow!

It's a depiction of nine peaches.

Symbols of... They're auspicious fruits in the minds of the Chinese.

Is this another, what do you call it, Qianlong?

It's Qianlong Emperor, made in the Imperial workshops for the Emperor.

'Because of the vase's connection to Qianlong,

'the legendary Emperor behind the infamous Pinner vase,

'hopes are high for a multi-million pound sale.'

I'm going to start this at 50 million, here with me.

50 million...

At 50 million...

Here with me at 50 million.

65 million...

68 million...

At 76, with Patty on the phone.

It's Patty's bidder now... 78 million.

80 million.

At 80 million... No more?

No?

To you, Patty, thank you very much.

£6,664,000.

I think Kevin's going to be happy enough with that.

'Not bad.

'But in the same sale, something even more remarkable is happening

'as bidding heats up on a 500-year-old Ming vase.'

68 million, 70 million.

75 million...

The bidding's just reached £6 million.

At 130 million, it's still against... 135.

L0009, thank you very much.

APPLAUSE

150 million Hong Kong dollars.

At £14 million, including fees,

this is a world record price for a Ming vase.

Its sale made headlines across the world.

As I've discovered in Hong Kong,

it seems there is no ceiling to this market for Chinese art.

Coming here, I feel I've really felt

the Chinese economic tiger flexing its muscles.

We've got the threat of economic recession across the West,

and here, people spending £9 million, £12 million on a vase.

It's as if that kind of money is almost pocket money.

I feel we're on a tipping point.

That something is changing in the world order, this isn't just about art.

But there's a flipside to this boom.

As the price of antiques has rocketed, there's also a shadowy parallel market

in fake objects, created to fool the unwary.

And the fight against fraud is being led from Britain.

At Cranfield University in Bedfordshire,

a forensic unit has been set up to authenticate Chinese art,

using the latest computer techniques.

'Dr Andrew Shortland is going to test a plate for me

'to show just how sophisticated the science has become.'

I just wonder, I don't hold out great hopes,

but is there any way in which you could perhaps identify

certain characteristics of my plate?

We'll have a go, shall we?

You can tell me whether it's a family heirloom

that will pay for my grandchildren to go through school, university

or whether it's just a not very good plate.

'Andrew x-rays my plate to see that it's intact

'and hasn't been tampered with.'

What you can see on here is

the x-ray of the plate standing on its stand there.

-It's rather more beautiful in x-ray.

-Yeah, it is quite.

What we're looking for is flaws, cracks.

White cracks show up here in the plate.

Would a prospective collector

of a genuinely very valuable Chinese plate or vase

be disturbed if you did pick up a crack of any kind?

Is that something the Chinese collector dislikes?

He likes his pieces to be pristine.

I think it would be the case for all collectors, yes.

Particularly the Chinese. The demand is for the perfect.

The pristine.

And, in terms of condition, actually, we've had a very quick look here

and it's pretty much intact, your plate.

'So my plate isn't cracked.

'But to discover how old it is

'involves a day's worth of more complex testing,

'analysing the composition of the paint.'

I can't bear the suspense.

OK, my plate's been sitting in your machine.

What can you tell me about its age?

OK, well, here's your plate here.

You can see the camera image of it.

What we've done is we've looked at

all sorts of different areas of your plate,

looking at the compositions.

So we can look at the glazed area and we can look at the enamels.

The enamels are coloured by different colouring elements,

and they're all coloured, fluxed with lead,

so they're all lead enamels.

Into that lead has been placed

certain amounts of other elements to give the colour.

At the moment, your plate is consistent with the 1850s,

the middle of the 19th century.

-But that's not terrible news.

-It's not terrible news.

It wasn't made yesterday,

but I wouldn't go spending the school fees at the moment if I were you.

OK, well, thank you for that.

-You're welcome.

-That's great.

I suppose the question that really begs in my mind is,

why now devote this degree of scientific ingenuity,

database-building...

Why now should all this be brought to bear on Chinese ceramics?

What's the reason?

Well, I think the driver is that

Chinese ceramics are going up and up and up in value.

They regularly fetch over a million pounds at auctions now

so the amount of effort it's worth going into for the forger

is considerably higher than it used to be

cos the value is so much greater.

So it's almost like an ingenuity race, a kind of ceramics Cold War.

Their ingenuity is getting greater in faking them

because the money is so much they could spend a year getting it right.

-The reward, potentially, is so great?

-That's right.

And you're running to keep up and overtake?

Exactly. Yes, exactly that.

'My 19th century plate is worth a respectable couple of hundred quid

'unless, of course, I can prove it was owned by an emperor.'

But back in London,

people will be hoping to see objects selling for rather bigger figures.

Dealers and collectors are jetting in from around the world

for the next big date on the Chinese arts calendar.

DRUMS BEAT

Well, it's one of the most exciting events of the year.

And they're certainly banging a drum for it.

In fact they're banging several drums for it.

Asian Art in London. Tonight's the opening.

All the big players are going to be there

and they're all looking for the next big bargain.

Asian Art in London is now in its 14th year

and it's got bigger as the Chinese art market has exploded.

This is a gathering of the great and good of the Asian art world

letting their hair down tonight,

because tomorrow it's all about

the serious business of buying and selling.

Jacqueline, what role does an event like Asian Art play in the market?

It provides an event which is a focus,

so visitors from overseas come into London.

You have 40 to 50 dealers who specialise in Asian art

putting on their best shows for sale.

Exhibitions in all the galleries around the centre of London.

Some people might say, "Why London?

"What's London got to offer now that increasingly

"we're getting these fairs, these events in Hong Kong, Beijing?"

What makes London special?

Why should people interested in Asian art want to come to London?

-It's a sort of devil's advocate question.

-London is London.

Think about it. There's so much to do here.

For Asian art you've got wonderful museums,

the Victoria & Albert Museum we're in now, top dealers

and you've got a wonderful range of things you can buy.

Might be a good place for a collector of Asian art

to broaden their taste and look at collecting other things as well.

No, no, certainly.

Next day, time to see what's on offer.

First stop is Christie's,

which has an remarkable collection

of Chinese cups made from rhino horn.

So, Pedram, what is it that you've chosen

to show me from all of the things in your sale?

Well, we have a very special rhinoceros horn carved stem cup,

which is Chinese obviously, and it dates from the late 17th century

and what's particularly special about this is the shape that it's carved in

and also the design carved around the exterior

which is what's known as the Hundred Boys design.

-May I?

-Of course.

Is there significance to the fact it's made out of rhinoceros horn?

Might that have played into

some ancient myths or superstitions in the Chinese mind?

Yes, well, the myth and the superstition is that

they were used as ritual vessels for ceremonies and so on.

And possibly for the Emperor or a very high-ranking official

or important person within the court.

The myth is that they would drink from these cups

because it would protect them from poisons, basically.

They wouldn't drink it as an aphrodisiac

before attempting to father little emperors?

That's what I heard rhinoceros horn was associated with.

There is the association with an aphrodisiac, yes,

and medicinal purposes.

'My curiosity duly piqued by these exotic objects,

'it's time to move on to another of London's great auction houses.

'Bonhams.'

The star attraction here is a 16th century vase

made in the blue and white colours of the Ming Dynasty,

with an estimate beginning at £300,000.

What is shows is something in Chinese terms, is hugely important,

it's children, and boy children at that.

These are all boys

and I think in the Imperial court in the 16th century,

to have something which suggests the continuity of the dynasty,

the production of children and particularly boy children.

Some of them are playing on hobby horses, balancing,

walking around with a staff.

This one here is sitting.

It has the mark of the Emperor Jiajing,

who ruled between 1522 and 1566.

All the elements in this to suggest to whoever made it for him,

for the imperial commission,

may the dynasty continue under your inspired leadership.

This is a wonderful object.

It's redolent in every respect of an imperial commission.

At the same time as Henry VIII was filling his London palaces,

Jiajing was filling his palaces with great porcelain.

It's a wonderful thought, it's exactly the same time

as Holbein is painting The Ambassadors,

the maker of this vase, is creating his own painting.

'But now the time for just looking at objects is coming to a close.'

It's auction time, the grand climax of Asian Art in London.

In Christie's, the rhino horn lots are going under the hammer.

Bidding for the cup that Pedram showed me

reaches nearly a quarter of a million pounds.

For £240,000.

Sadly not enough to secure a buyer,

but the rest of the collection sells well,

going for more than three million quid.

Do you want another one?

At Bonhams, I'm keen to see how much the Ming vase is going to reach.

180,000 for this. 180.

190. 200,000.

220,000. At 220,000.

280,000.

Any more? It's against the telephones now at £280,000.

At £280,000, there we are.

280.

£280,000!

The amazing thing is he's probably slightly disappointed with that.

That's £20,000 below the lower end of the estimate

but still, more than a quarter of a million pounds.

'But the auctioneer's not disappointed for long,

'as bidding heats up over an 18th century vase made for, who else,

'that famous Qianlong emperor.'

Six million. Six.

Julian's bid.

It's here at seven million.

100,000.

Selling it for £8 million.

Fair warning, both of you.

Eight million, sold!

APPLAUSE

This is the big story of the week.

Soaring over its estimate, costing £9 million including fees,

this is the highest price paid for an object

during Asian Art in London.

And the whole event secures record sales of over £57 million.

'Even if this boom in Chinese art doesn't last forever,

'I still think of it as a game-changing phenomenon.

'It's going to make us in the West

'fundamentally change the way we think about art,

'and about what counts as a masterpiece.'

Up until now, if you were to make a list

of the ten most valuable works of art in the world,

they'd all have been Western, they would probably all be paintings,

the sort of thing you find in the National Gallery,

works of art by the likes of Titian or Velazquez.

But with the ascent of Chinese art, all that's changed.

It's wonderfully liberating, I think.

We've entered a whole new world

where we can realise that a beautiful Confucian scholar's bed,

inlaid with marble to look like landscape,

is every bit as moving and powerful as a Renoir landscape.

And where a jade can be every bit as precious as a Jasper Johns.

So perhaps it's time to have one more root around in that attic.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media

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