How great thou art

The Powerlong Museum to be opened on Nov 18 in Shanghai shows artworks collected by Xu Jiankang including Huang Zhou's ink painting Grassland and Qi Baishi's album of paintings Landscapes. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing, owned by the real estate developer and collector Yan Shijie, now features two solo exhibitions of the US artists Dan Graham and Andres Serrano.

In fact, private museums have become the main venues of leading international artists' debut shows in China. Featured artists recently have included the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, the British artist Antony Gormley and the US artist James Turrell.

However, mounting these grand exhibitions has also put huge financial pressures on museums, which rely heavily on funding from founders as well as donations.

A museum as large as Long in Shanghai and the UCCA cost $5 million a year to run, and making money is something most museums can only dream of, the global private art museum report said.

In addition to revenue from ticket sales, gift shops, cafes and restaurants, some museums looking to cover their costs or do even better put on educational programs for children and adults for which they levy a fee.

Guan of Art Market Monitor of Atron says that about 85 percent of private museums it interviewed said they hope for more help from the government, such as tax breaks and well-thought-out rules on the establishment of art foundations.

Du Jingwei, deputy director of Long Museum, says private museums also need to explore new development patterns so they can make profits.