The platform will offer online trading services for paintings and calligraphy works. Painters will be invited to develop new products and produce replicas of famous artworks.

The platform also created what is believed to be China's first professional online transaction center for gem and jade jewelry. It takes advantage of the rich gem resources in Weifang's Changle county, which has been dubbed "Gem City of China", to integrate online and offline trading and promote the local industry.

For film and TV businesses, the exchange platform will enable the transaction of copyright material for films, comics, animations and TV.

Another function of the platform is to allow online trading of stamps, coins and IC card collections; information regarding news releases, appraisals and identification; and warehousing services.

"To ensure safe and convenient culture asset and equity trade, we have established strategic cooperation relationships in trading fund depositaries with a number of banks, including China Construction Bank and Weifang Bank," Wang said.

Weifang Bank established a 150-square-meter professional artwork warehouse with Weifang Municipal Museum. "The cooperation with Weifang Bank can also help us to provide our customers safekeeping services," he added.

The platform invited 12 appraisal experts, including Yang Boda, former deputy curator of the Palace Museum in Beijing and president of the Jade Association of the Chinese Cultural Relic Society.

To boost business, the platform has employed more than 100 marketing specialists and set up eight branches in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

"We aim to make the platform one of most famed online culture asset and equity exchange centers in China in the future, with annual turnover of about 300 billion yuan ($47.1 billion)," Wang said.

Two Italian painters take photos of works displayed at an exhibition in Weifang. Photo by Wang Qian/China Daily

By Wang Qian, wangqian2@chinadaily.com.cn

Source: China Daily