Tue Sep 6, 2011 5:44 am EST

No "> (Reuters)-as the ranks of the middle class art buyers in Singapore rico grow, galleries that represents artists such as Damien Hirst-best known for work with preserved corpses of animals that cost millions-aim to bottom, taking advantage of a boom for the purchase of art.

About ten pieces by Hirst, all of them prints, will be offered for less than $ 8,000 along with thousands of other works of art accessible art fair in Singapore in November.

In line with the name of the art show, nothing goes to over S $ 10,000 ($ 8,296)-an effort to attract budding art investors unable to pay stratospheric prices commanded by more conventional auction rooms pieces or art events.

Singapore, Asia's private banking hub and home to more millionaires per 1,000 households than any other country, is also a regional base for many banks and multinationals.

A growing number of these relatively well remunerated executives that may not be the high class caught the bug of art and is no longer content to just buy beautiful paintings and sculptures to decorate their homes, but are looking for specific topics.

"I like paintings, especially with women as a subject. It can be a mother and son, faces of women or naked, "said Lou Dela Pena, a Senior Executive in an advertising firm in his late 30s.

She has 10 paintings in her apartment in Singapore and several other back in his native Philippines.

At the inaugural Architekturmuseum in Singapore last year, she bought two paintings for under S $ 5,000 each, including a drawing of a Japanese woman by Australian artist Nanami Cowdroy that had been brought by an art gallery of Indonesia ink stylized.

All galleries who exhibited at the last show s sold 1.75 million dollars (US $ 1.158 million) worth of art, making the Singapore event "the most successful first edition that we had in any market," said Show Director Camilla Hewitson.

Hewitson said art accessible, a UK firm which currently organizes exhibitions in nine cities around the world, hopes to expand into China greater in 2013 to complement their exhibitions in Singapore and Melbourne, Australia.

Gallery owners say the growing interest for art in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia is due to the rapid economic growth in the region, creating a large middle class with extra money to spend.

"The middle class everywhere is interested in quality of life and the quality of life will always have a cultural element, whether it is watching a concert, attend a trade fair or buying art," said Meg Maggio, a lawyer turned curator and owner of Pekin fine arts, a gallery of Beijing.

BUDDING COLLECTORS, NOT SUPER-RICH

Information about artists and their works are also more easily available for budding collectors that are not super rich because of the Internet, unlike in the past, when buyers were relying on consultants and owners of galleries, "she added.

Two of these people are lawyers Singapore David Chee and wife Joanna Er, both in their 20s, who have been buying art for several years and use the Internet to follow the artists whose works they bought.

Its collection includes two pieces of Chinese artist Li Hsing-lung, whose colorful Chinese brush paintings of animals are now auctioned Sotheby's and can be found in art galleries in London.

Er said the two paintings of Li are probably worth more than when they were purchased for the first time, judging by the price quoted on the Internet, although they have no intention of selling.

"There are some parts that we buy based on aesthetic that probably never will sell, and there are others that we expect will go up in value," her husband Chee said.

Some experts believe that seat own art may be even greater than the current sales show. Many potential customers feel they do not have adequate knowledge and are frightened off with what they see as the difficulties of caring for art in hot and humid climate of Southeast Asia.

Gil Schneider, a former consultant with Sotheby, recently teamed up with advertising executive Pek Jolyn and others creating a company to help novice buyers meet artists and galleries.

"For new collectors, we will conduct workshops and provide individual consulting possible selections, based on your budget and taste," Pek said.

Schneider said collectors should not be overly concerned with the deterioration that occurs over a long period of time and paintings can be repaired.

While the paper and photographs that deteriorate more quickly in Southeast Asia because of the moisture, oils on canvas are easier to maintain, do not suffer the cracks caused by changes of temperature as in Europe, he added.

It does not recommend the purchase of contemporary art, purely as an investment, and buyers should enjoy the job too as it is difficult to predict how an artist will develop.

"Dividend of art is the enjoyment to look at it every day, chatting with him and find out what the artist is trying to say."

(US $ 1 = 1,202 Singapore dollars)

(Situated edited by Elaine)

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