Auctioneers in Shanghai are complaining after 14 auction houses in Shanghai had been ordered to close temporarily by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China for not following regulations set for the industry.
The cultural heritage agency's order to temporarily shut down the said establishments explained that they have failed to meet three of the key business qualifications specifically assigned to auctioneers, the Shanghai Daily reported last week.
According to the new rule, all auction houses in China should only hire trained experts in examining ceramics, jade and stone, and metal objects in addition to the Auction Management Regulations' requirement that the auction house must have at least three "qualified auction practitioners, including at least one auctioneer."
In order to obtain the agency's standard expertise needed for the new regulation, owners and managers of auction houses need to send their employees to obtain a certification after attending training courses in Beijing.
Though it sounds easy, auction house operators consider this a heavy burden in their company because acquiring such certifications require up to 10,000 yuan ($1,630) per person they send.
Aside from that, the passing rate during the trainings' final examinations is significantly low at only 20 percent.
"When the new regulation (regarding the certificates) was issued in 2012 we were told it didn't apply to existing businesses," Shanghai Auction Co. General Manager Lin Yiping claimed, saying that he was shocked to hear of the announcement.
Some employees of the Shanghai Auction Co., which was one of the companies who had been ordered to temporarily stop operations, have already been sent to attend trainings in the Chinese capital.
All in all, 63 auction houses were forced to close while they acquire the necessary requirements imposed in the administration's new rule.