Art Market @ China

An African elephant in South Africa (2006).
(Trevor Ohlsson/Wikimedia Commons)

This was likely bound to happen sometime - China has now overtaken the United States as the world's largest art and antiques market, "ending decades of American domination," as recently reported by artdaily.org.

Hopefully this means that great artworks and fabulous antiques are merely wending their way to other parts of the globe as more and more hard-working Chinese folks reap the well-deserved fruits of their labor.

(I will omit any in-depth discussion of the elaborately carved ivory sculptures popular in China that have led to a tragic increase in the poaching of African elephants, as reported by Vanity Fair, NPR and other media outlets since last year. I would prefer it if the Chinese stop liking these ivory sculptures - which in my mind do not qualify as "fine art" - and buy up some nice paintings and antiques instead that did not necessarily involve the harming of animals as majestic as the African elephant! OK. I will get off my conservation soapbox now.)

Let there by - cruelty-free - art! Over and out ...