‘Eagle on Pine Tree’ painting, by renowned 1900s (turn of the Century) artist Qi Baishi. The piece fetched $425,500,000 Chinese yuan ($67.4 million Canadian) in a Guardian auction in fall 2011.

One of the top art auction houses in China has set up shop in Vancouver, an attempt to explore the emerging local market — and providing yet another sign of the city’s increasing visibility to Chinese businesses.

Beijing-based China Guardian Auctions Co. Limited, the world’s fourth largest auction house, opened its office in January in Vancouver, the first of its kind in Canada.

This is not China Guardian’s first venture in to Metro Vancouver; last year, it held its first Canadian artwork consignment event in Richmond. Director and vice-president Kou Qin said the event resulted in Guardian accepting $50 million Chinese yuan ($7.9 million Canadian) in artwork for auction.

“We look at Vancouver as market filled with crouching tigers and hidden dragons,” Kou said, noting the regions large Chinese immigrant population may have brought Chinese art collections with them to Canada.

“There are families here with a long history of collecting artwork, and lately, the Chinese market for traditional art has skyrocketed. Collectors should be aware that their collections could fetch a very good price right now.”

Vancouver is one of many North American cities, Kou said, with large Chinese populations who may have art collections heavily sought after in China. Thus, China Guardian has been aggressive in hosting consignment events in these cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

There has been a resurgence in the Chinese art market in the past two decades, as China’s strengthening economic clout also boosted the country’s appetite for its traditional art.

Incidentally, there was a shortage of traditional art pieces in China itself, largely due to the destruction of artwork that took place during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. So in recent decades, Chinese buyers and companies have stepped up efforts to purchase traditional art that has made its way overseas — some of which that left the country after the civil war ended in 1949. Some of those pieces landed in Vancouver during the Asian immigration wave of the 1990s.

China Guardian was founded in 1993, and blossomed from the resurgence of the Chinese art market, quickly obtaining the status as one of the top auction firms in China. According to French auction body Conseil des Ventes, China Guardian’s strength in the surging Chinese market, in fact, has made it a legitimate challenger to traditional powerhouses Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the global market, as Chinese buyers “are prepared to pay as much for a Chinese ink painting as for a Picasso,” according to a recent BBC report.

In the most recent auction sessions, in fall 2011, total auctions by China Guardian reached $3.9 billion Chinese yuan ($612 million in Canadian dollars) in value. Included in the art that was auctioned off during those sessions were two elite-level pieces, each sold at more than $100 million yuan ($16 million Canadian).

Kou said China Guardian is very likely to hold another consignment event in Metro Vancouver this year, although no specific date has been announced.