As you report, auction and gallery sales in China accounted for twenty-three percent of the global art market last year (“The New Medicis,” October 22, 2011). In terms of public auctions only, last year China accounted for thirty-three percent of global art sales. However, Chinese collectors are currently focusing on Chinese art, from antiquities to contemporary art. Therefore, the question is whether or not Chinese buyers will in time develop a taste for western art, which is facing a slump at this time. Predictably, experts differ. Some famous gallerists are already moving to Hong Kong and deeper into China. Others are skeptical, arguing that much of Europe’s old art has religious themes alien to Chinese culture. I wonder. The richest Chinese collectors are sure to venture abroad sooner or later, if for no other reason than to impress their competitors at home. This is what American collectors did in the Fifties and Sixties. Or what the Japanese collectors did in the Eighties. Once again, the Chinese collectors will go for the priciest art on offer. Period. The subject matter will not deter them one single bit. After all, the richest collectors anywhere could not care less about art, anyhow.