Painting by numbers

China's Ministry of Culture disallows many of the works of some 385 painters and calligraphers to leave the country; a product both of nationalist pride and perhaps a backlash from the near annihilation of "bourgeois" art that took place during the Cultural Revolution.

In Taiwan, where bourgeois Chinese art found sanctuary, early collectors bought all they could of works by mainland artists such as Zao, his teacher, Lin Fengmian (林風眠), feminist scion Pan Yuliang (潘玉良), San Yu (常玉) and Yun Gee (朱沅芷) as well as local favorites Chu Teh-chun (朱德群), Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波), Liao Chi-chun (廖繼春) and others.

"Taiwanese artists ? were learners of Western-style painting, thus Taiwanese collectors have a special fondness for oil paintings," Chen explains in the most recent edition of Art and Investment. "Perhaps this has something to do with the leading role played by Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and his fondness for local painters during his 12 years in office."

A president's patronage is certain to boost sales of any artist's work, but other factors can aid appreciation as well.

Pan Yuliang benefited from her status as a cultural icon in the early days of the republic. A television series of her life, Soul of a Painter (畫魂), starring Michelle Lee (李嘉欣), became popular in China and Taiwan, as was a movie by the same name starring Gong Li (鞏俐). The productions boosted Pan's works -- mostly nude women and the occasional horse -- fetching them prices of between NT$4 and NT$8 million. Her highest-priced work, a revealing Self-Portrait, brought an NT$8.3 million hammer price in 2000.

Throughout the 1980s, Lee Tse-fan's (李澤籓) watercolors sold steadily at prices of about NT$5,500 per hao. After his son, Lee Yuan-tse (李遠哲), won a Nobel Prize in 1987, his unit price rose 10-fold, reaching NT$50,000 in the mid-1990s. A couple of transactions in 2002 even garnered NT$100,000 per hao.

For some artists, though, dollar appreciation of their work is simply a reflection of widespread aesthetic appreciation. In this category, Zao Wou-ki reigns supreme.

Zao's works appreciated 31 percent in the period between 1997 and 2002. In the past five years, his works had the highest cumulative value of any Chinese painter of Western-styled art, totaling some NT$570 million. He also holds the record for the most expensive 20th century Chinese oil painting ever sold at auction: A large canvass titled 1.4.66 was awarded to a private Taiwanese collector in 2002 for his bid of NT$33.7 million, over US$1 million by current exchange rates.

Given the success of Ravenel's recent auction, there is already a buzz surrounding next Sunday's sale to be held by Leader Art. The company's chief executive officer, Owen Chen (陳裕豐), expects scores of participants and perhaps 200 observers.

Still, despite the high expectation, Chen, says that the future of Chinese art investment, like so many other forms of investment, is in China.

"We have an office in Shanghai, though it's currently illegal for outside companies to hold auctions there," he said. "The Chinese are becoming much wealthier and their artists are being influenced by Western styles, just as Taiwanese artists have long been. As appreciation of art increases, so too will the amounts being spent on it."

Chen's office is about the size of a bank vault, and if it weren't for its glass door entrance you might confuse it for one. Propped against the wall and hanging from it are a dozen paintings and watercolors -- several million dollars of the best contemporary Chinese art on the market, including two Zao Wou-ki pieces.