ART MARKET / Japanese buys

THE Japanese stopped buying art last year after their market was upended by a series of mega-scandals: art had been used for tax evasion, bribes and other criminal purposes. But Japanese connoisseurs, as opposed to crooks and investors, are genuinely fond of art - and they have started buying again over the last few weeks, displaying a familiar taste for works by the Impressionists and good home-grown art.

Monet's view of 'Charing Cross Bridge' in a purple fog made pounds 2,145,000 on 29 June, with Kayoko Guy, a Japanese expert from Christie's Impressionist department, signalling the winning bid on behalf of an unnamed client. There was an Italian underbidder

A tiny Van Gogh, measuring only 9 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches, titled 'Nature Morte, Branche d'Amandier' and painted early in 1888, was the most expensive picture in the Sotheby's 30 June sale at pounds 1.32m. It went to a young Japanese dealer at the back of the saleroom

An auction record for a Japanese wood-block print was set in Paris on 3 June when Utamaro's 'Mono Omou Koi' sold for about pounds 240,000. It comes from a series of prints illustrating love poems (about 1790)

Prices for Japanese porcelain dipped sharply at Western auctions last year, as Japanese bidders withdrew their support, but they revived again at the Sotheby's sale on 18 June. The star turn was a 17th- century 'shishi', or lion dog, which was sold for pounds 49,500. It was purchased by Mitsuo Fujikura, a Tokyo dealer, who had bought the dog's female companion at a Sotheby's auction in 1987, for pounds 48,400

(Photographs omitted)