PARIS-Global art auction sales surged to a record $11.5 billion (8.7 billion euros) last year despite the weak world economy, with China cementing its spot as the top market, research showed Wednesday. 

A report by Artprice, the France-based world leader in art market data, said auction revenues had risen 21 percent last year and for the first time exceeded the $10 billion mark. 

“This exceptional growth did not fade through the year,”Thierry Ehrmann, Artprice founder and chairman, told AFP, adding that in a time of financial crisis "art has become a truly safe investment. 

“Once a work of art is worth 15,000 euros or more, the buyer is not taking any risk of loss. At the worst, it will maintain its value,”Ehrmann said. 

“And once you're at 150,000 euros, the buyer can bank on earning 12 to 15 percent on his investment in years to come. In the 1950s there were 500,000 collectors. Now there are 300 million art consumers.” 

China, which took over the first place in global auction sales in 2010, held on to the top spot with $4.79 billion in sales, or 41.43 percent of the market. 

The United States was in second place with $2.72 billion in sales, or 23.57 percent of the market, followed by Britain with $2.24 billion, or 19.36 percent of the market. 

As well as China's 38 percent growth in auction revenue last year, Singapore posted growth of 22 percent and Indonesia of 39 percent, the report said. 

The year's best result was also generated by an Asian artist, China's Qi Baishi, whose 1946 painting of an eagle perched on the branch of a pine tree sold at auction in Beijing last May for 425.5 million yuan ($67.6 million).