Artprice and Art Stage Singapore Form Strategic Partnership in Asia

PARIS, October 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

As predicted in previous annual reports, Artprice confirms that Asia, as a whole, will represent over 55% of the global art market in 2012 and a minimum share of 65% to 70% by 2015.

However, despite China's apparent domination - with a 41% market share far ahead of the USA with 23% - Asia, with 61% of the world population, is a highly complex market and can even be a veritable nightmare for Western companies that have failed to understand the local terrain.

For example, the question of "market share" on the Asian art market is in fact far more complicated than it first appears. On paper, China looks the obvious leader; but Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines could also justifiably make the same claim.

In reality, there are only two major entry points to the Asian art market (which includes China, India, South East Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Australia & New Zealand) and both are leading financial and wealth management centres: Singapore and Hong Kong. Artprice has been intensely involved in setting up its offices in Hong Kong since early August 2012. However, it still lacked access through the other major gateway and indeed the most important one for Asia as a whole, Singapore… with all of its cultural diversity.

Singapore is a cosmopolitan, dynamic and global City-State with a very high standard of living, political stability and financial strength. It also has a significant art scene, a powerful museum industry and a free port that meets the needs of the Asian art market. In addition, Singapore is ranked among the top three countries of the world in terms of broadband Internet penetration.

Artprice is pleased to announce that its long-term alliance with the important international art fair, Art Stage Singapore since the latter's inception has been extended into a mature partnership for the joint production and publishing of educational books and permanent digital data streams for major Asian art collectors and the pooling of high-value client databases to create a vital chain of additional value on the Internet (Artprice's PMN®) between editions of Art Stage Singapore.

This strategic alliance, that will materialize by the end of 2012, is driven primarily by the two companies' respective founders and leaders: Lorenzo Rudolf, founder of Art Stage Singapore and Thierry Ehrmann, CEO and founder of Artprice.

According to Thierry Ehrmann:

"Art Stage Singapore - which enjoys strong political support from Singapore's government in its bid to become a major reference in Asia - owes its success to its founder Lorenzo Rudolf. Lorenzo Rudolf is undoubtedly one of the top 5 global "market makers" (major players who impose their views on the Art Market). Lorenzo Rudolf's career has been impressive and faultless: from Art Basel in the 1990s, to Art Basel Miami and ShContemporary in Shanghai. Art Stage Singapore is the fruit of an intelligent and intimate knowledge of the global art market and especially the Asian Art Market, where no European or American has acquired such a high level of art market expertise. In January 2013, Art Stage Singapore will focus its attention on Indonesia, the most dynamic emerging country in Asia in terms of art, and a new "land of opportunity" for Artprice. Likewise, the strong presence of Australian and New Zealand galleries at Art Stage Singapore will complete Artprice's "global rollout."

According to Lorenzo Rudolf:
"Art Stage Singapore is the only international art fair that covers South Asia and the Asia Pacific zone and which functions as the unavoidable rendez-vous for collectors, artists, amateur art buyers, art institutions and art galleries from both sides of Asia. The 2013 edition will showcase the extraordinary vitality of Indonesian Art (Indonesian Pavilion) and will allow Art Stage Singapore to present the first virtual art fair in Asia (Art Stage+).

A significant portion of the fair will be devoted to a presentation of thirty well-known artists from emerging countries (Art Stage Singapore Initiative) and to the presentation of Singapore's State platform (National Arts Council - NAC). There will also be a strong Australian element among the 130 galleries from around the world (80% Pan Asia, 20% International). Lastly, Art Talks will present a global view of art trends, both in Asia and rest of the world. Art Stage Singapore's strategic alliance with Artprice offers prestigious collectors from "Greater Asia" and beyond all the imaginable services and chains of value that the art market can provide".

Artprice - as global leader in art market information - supports and validates the highly sophisticated strategy of Art Stage Singapore and its director Lorenzo Rudolf. Singapore is considered the Switzerland of Asia, a hub for private wealth management with very strong State support for culture. In terms of cultural dialogue and new artistic media, Singapore is destined to become the center of the elitist segment of the Asia art market. Artprice's presence in Hong Kong and the forthcoming launch of its Standardized Auction & Fixed-Price Marketplace will give Artprice a key place at the core of the Asian art market, which will account for close to 70% of the global art market in less than three years. Artprice will the preferred channel for customer transactions at Art Stage Singapore.

For Art Stage Singapore, the alliance with Artprice solves problems related to the calendar of global art fairs while for Artprice it  provides a physical presence and an opportunity to irrigate the powerful and discrete networks behind the major Asian collectors.

http://www.artprice.com (c) 1987-2012 thierry Ehrmann

Artprice is global leader in art-price and art-index databanks with more than 27 million indices and auction results covering more than 500,000 artists. Artprice Images(R) gives unlimited access to the largest art market resource in the world, a library of 108 million images or engravings of artworks from 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice's art historians. Artprice permanently enriches its databanks with information from 4,500 auctioneers and publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the main news agencies and 6,300 international written media. Artprice diffuses its advertisements (ads) to its 1.71 million members (member log in) who now represent the world's largest Standardised Marketplace® for the acquisition and sale of artworks at fixed-price or via its auction brokerage system (regulated by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article L 321.3 of the French Code of Commerce).

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Contact: Josette Mey - tel: +33(0)478-220-000, e-mail: ir@artprice.com