Chinese art sales surge among US collectors

The popularity of Chinese art is surging among the United States' and Asian collectors who value modern and ancient paintings, drawings, artifacts and objects, Christie's New York auction house says.

Vicki Paloympis, head of Christie's Chinese Works of Art Department in Manhattan, travels globally in search of Chinese art for sale. She has been instrumental in obtaining and selling several landmark collections, including hundreds of ceramics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"American buying had quieted for at least a decade, but it has increased in recent years," Paloympis said. "This past season almost a third of our buyers and bidders were in the Americas and Europe."