Cai said her work reflects that experience as Christie's seeks to facilitate a two-way relationship between Chinese collectors and artists with their counterparts abroad.

"Promoting the integration of Chinese and Western art is one of our top priorities in the long term," Cai said.

Christie's holds inaugural auction

Putting heart into the art

"Impressionist paintings share something in common with traditional Chinese ink and wash paintings, making Chinese collectors" inclined to appreciate it, she said.

Christie's in 2013 had record sales for any auction house; $7.13 billion, up 14 percent from a year earlier. Business was driven by new buyers in emerging markets-including China and India-and Internet sales.

According to the company's financial report for the year, 30 percent of buyers were new and generated 22 percent of total sales.

Chinese buyers, new and old, accounted for 22 percent of global sales, up 63 percent year-on-year.

Beijing has overtaken Hong Kong as the center of China's art trade. The mainland has generated more than 80 percent of market share by sales in art since 2009. That's even as Hong Kong clawed back some in 2012, expanding to 17 percent from 5 percent, according to a report by TEFAF Maastricht.

The art market, supported by China's economic growth of recent years, is being driven by unprecedented opportunities brought from technological improvement and the Chinese people's growing spiritual demand, Cai said.

"Technology removed the barriers in space and time for fine art auctions and private sales and gives a big boost to our online-only sales," Cai said.