Counterfeit industry may crash antiques trade, experts warn

Many are sold to tourists for 100 times their production cost. CFP Photo

By Liang Meilan

The heated debate over the legitimacy of Cao Cao’s tomb escalated this week when a Hubei-based scholar of cultural relics demonstrated that the relics ound within it were created using the same counterfeiting techniques as many shady dealers of dubious antiquities.

While not everyone is convinced of his proof, the news has drawn  attention to the alarming accuracy with which the fake cultural relic industry  reinvents history.

The relatively mature industry, which survives by taking advantage of weak legislation, is currently generating more than 10 billion yuan per year. Some experts are pointing to a coming “credit crisis” in the market for antique

Know your fakes

Panjiayuan in Chaoyang District is famous for its 50,000 square-meter antique market — a training ground where many relic hunters g to learn how to tell a fake from a historical gem.

Of course, the vendors wouldn’t be there if everyone shopped with the eye of an expert.Vendors say the market is better described as a breeding ground for “rich peasnts,” who sell their latest fake antiques to eager and often clueless tourists.“Each year, thousands come to Panjiayuan to profit by selling these fake antiques,” said Wu Shu, a cultural scholar who has spent the lt five years studying the dark sides of the national antique trade.

Xiao Ge, 31, is one such rich peasant.

In 1999, Xiao’s friends told him that selling fake artifacts in Beijing was as easy as printing money. With onlyfive years of primary school education, the 20-year-old left his Henan Province village to seek cash in the big city.

He got his start by helping antique traders locate collectors, and eventually went on to sell small jades. Today, Xiao owns a Panjiayuan store with two branches in town where he trades in furniture worth millions of yuan.

Xiao has seen a dramatic change in the market during the last decade.

“Ten year ago, when I just started doing business, most of the artifacts being traded were real antiques acquired by tomb raiders. Finishing each deal was a dangerous experience because we knew we were doing something illegal,’’ he saidThen counterfeit goods began pouring into the market, making it easier and safer to earn money. “Most are produced with exquisite techniques. Some fake artifacts that cost only a few dozen yuan can be sold in a show window forthe price of a real one,” he said.Xiao and other vendors consider selling counterfeits to new collectors at high prices a “tuition fee” of sortsLess perfect fakes are labeled as imitations and sold a hundred times their production cost to tourists or foreigners looking for decorations or gifts. “So the counterfeits on the market have two sides. Some are for collectors, and others are for common use,” he sai

Eighty percent of the antiques at Panjiayuan are fakes,” said Li Yanjun, a researcher of the counterfeiting industry at Beijing Oriental University.“The big problem is that most of the fakes end up in antique stores and auction shops. Oncethey end up there, they wreak havoc on the market,” he said.