Art gains popularity as passion investment

"One is that collectors are becoming younger. The other is that people are starting to talk more about art funds.

"People no longer solely depend on themselves to invest in arts. They invite friends or resort to other financing or leverages to invest in it."

The White Paper found that although only 15 percent of rich people had invested in art funds, as much as 60 percent of them were satisfied with the investment result. About 17 percent of the respondents said they will invest in art funds.

On average, Chinese millionaires started investing in passion investments, or alternative forms of investment, in 2008.

"At a time when the stock market or the property market does not perform as well as before, it is probably the best time for people to turn to alternative investments," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report.

"Having a better understanding of the consumption of these rich people, who have more money to invest, will help boost domestic consumption, which is line with the central government's call," he added.

Insights into the alternative investment demands of China's high net worth individuals also help with trends in private banking, said Xue Ruifeng, the general manager of the Private Banking Department of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd.

"The characteristics of passion investments allow the private banking industry to tailor different packages for various customers, which reflect the personalized asset allocation service concepts of private banking," Xue said.

The report showed that in fine wine investment, the most important consideration was the vintage of the wine (81 percent of respondents), followed by label (77 percent) and region (66 percent).