ABOVE: Detail from Lin Fengmian’s Four Beauties, one of 450 pieces to be sold during Christie’s first ever sale in China, on November 3.

The stampede into China took a great leap forward yesterday—pun intended—when top-shelf auction house Christie’s announced [PDF link!] that it has established a pseudo-subsidiary in Beijing. The new auction house, named, rather grandiosely, “Forever,” has a sort of arm’s-length relationship going on, in order to neatly skirt China’s foreign-ownership laws: Christie’s will put its name on the auction, its curators will appraise the works, it historians will print the catalogue, and its auctioneers will wield the hammer. What exactly Forever does, in its no doubt richly-rewarded role as puppet company, is unclear.

The first Forever-Christie’s auction will be held at the Sheraton Beijing on November 3, featuring about 450 artworks expected to fetch up to $10 million. Naturally, the hype about Asian art being what it is these days, it’s possible it could be much higher. The market for art within Asia is bigger every year, and growing in leaps and bounds; no doubt Christie’s wants a finger in that pie. But art auctions are a two-way street: just as flush Asian buyers have been snapping up art around the world for a while now, this new deal gives Christie’s a shunt directly into a very rich vein of asian art that’s in big demand in the west. Christie’s may have obeyed the letter of Chinese law in their deal with Forever, but we bet the People’s Liberation Army is none too pleased.

LINK: New York Times > Christie’s Going, Going to China [*groan* - eds.] to Hold Auctions