A 14th century sculpture of Shakyamuni.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Poly Auction set up an online auction platform named Yidianchina.com in 2012. Last year, it held more than 500 auctions online and its sale revenue was more than 50 million yuan, says Qiu Tong, CEO of Yidianchina. About 20,000 subscribers bought works through them.

Qiu says: "Increasing numbers of Chinese buyers are going for online auctions and art trade. The number is spiraling.

"Art is also a commodity. So as consumption grows, the market will become huge in China."

Besides Poly Auction, other houses, galleries, companies, e-commerce sites and art media are also getting into the business.

Last year, online auctions became common, but most works sold below 50,000 yuan and were produced by young artists. But the number of buyers is colossal.

Liu, the head of RomBon Auction, says: "The Internet can accommodate hundreds of thousands of buyers at one time. But for traditional auction houses like ours, we had only about 1,000 bidders all together for the spring and autumn auctions last year.

"Big collectors like Liu Yiqian are very rare and he is a rare case. But for the mass consumption market, that's a potential and big opportunity."

Private collector Liu Yiqian made his name on the international stage with several big-ticket purchases, especially his $170 million for Modigliani's Reclining Nude at Christie's in New York in November.