The New York Times had a massive feature on the Chinese art market the other day, well worth reading.
Felix Salmon adds his usual excellent commentary here. If you don't have time to read the whole story, Jori Finkel sums it up in one sentence: "Crazy financial speculation + strong copyist tradition in art = a Chinese art market flooded with fakes." Lee Rosenbaum calls it "shocking" and "revelatory," but The Art Market Monitor is not shocked at all: "Who seriously thought art in China was anything more than a speculative instrument, a wild casino?"
