Spring-season auctions saw deals closed for 80 percent of the oil paintings on offer, but the figure for calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting hovered around 50 percent.

"Collectors have lost confidence in calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting because of all the fakes on the market," said Zhang Xinjian, a senior official with the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

China's arts sector has generated a huge amount of international interest in the last five years. A few years back, calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting were highly valued with a painting by Chinese maestro Qi Baishi setting a record 16.61 million yuan (US$2 million) at auction.

However, credibility doubts have seen the calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting market spiral into decline. In anticipation of big profits, auction companies have put the same item under the hammer several times, bidding up the price, or even letting counterfeit works enter the market.

Many overseas auction companies have since spurned this category.

Guo Qianru, an art dealer from Taiwan, said calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting were the most important part of the Chinese arts market, since annual deals in this sector totaled billions of US dollars.

"We will lose this big market if we do not improve credibility," she said.

Zhang said that, according to international practice, auction companies should introduce artistic works in detail, so that collectors could judge the true value of the works. However, most Chinese auction companies do not provide detailed information or even mention the source of the artistic works.

Liu Ying, a veteran agent with a Beijing arts collection agency, said most Chinese collectors had no professional art-collection knowledge. In the absence of credible information from auction companies, they have to train themselves to judge "real" from "counterfeit."

"Past practice proves that the more experienced the collectors are, the more mature the market," said Liu.

Modern art has out-performed calligraphy and traditional Chinese paintings in recent years.

"Modern artists have learned from international practice and entrusted their works to credible agencies," Zhang said, adding that surging demand by overseas collectors for modern Chinese oil paintings has had a positive impact.

However, insiders said that modern Chinese oil paintings that sell well on overseas market are usually not mainstream works and do not represent the true status of the arts in China. Western collectors prefer avant-garde works with political implications.

"Many local collectors in China focus on what is in favor in overseas markets because of the potentially high added-value, but think little about what the painting is really worth," Zhang said.

"To cater to the market, many young Chinese painters have abandoned their original style and adopted an avant-garde approach in order to make money."