What drove Christie’s record sales in the first have of this year? Chinese buyers. “Now if anyone doubts that the Chinese art market is exploding, Christie’s has attributed its record sales of £910m for the first six months of 2005 to the emergence of Chinese buyers keen to buy back their cultural heritage. Asian art accounted for £71.3m of Christie’s sales between January and June, far short of the £232.3m spent on impressionist and modern art but outstripping the £38.5m spent on old masters.”