New landmark for art opens in Beijing

The modern complex of the Guardian Art Center in Beijing, facing the traditional Chinese-style complex of the National Art Museum of China, houses a three-floor space for exhibitions, halls for auctions, an underground art warehouse and a five-star hotel with about 120 rooms.

 "When the elevator opens, our guest can walk from the auction house to their hotel room or the art warehouse," says Kou.

Guests can watch live auctions via the in-house TV and make bids. There's a specially-made safe box in each hotel room, about one-meter wide, for buyers to temporarily store their art purchases.

Apart from auctions, the other major function of the center is to hold the annual Guardian Fine Art Asia, which was set up in 2014 and mainly focuses on antiques.

This year, the art fair, to be held from Oct 25 to 29, has attracted antique dealers from the United States and Europe.

Kou says fairs featuring contemporary art in China are enough in numbers, but ones featuring antiques are rare as they need to be organized based on legal requirements intended to protect the nation's cultural heritage.

The upcoming fair will not only focus on antiques, but also furniture and jewelry.

"We hope the art fair can become China's TEFAF," Kou adds.

The European Fine Art fair is an annual fair of art, antiques and design, and it is considered the best of its kind in the world.

When China Guardian was set up in Beijing 24 years ago, its founder Chen Dongsheng said to media that he hoped his auction house would become China's Sotheby's, one of the world's leading auction houses.

Last year, Chen's insurance company, Taikang Life, purchased a stake in Sotheby's, becoming the auction house's largest shareholder. And China Guardian is the biggest shareholder of Taikang Life.