For years their work could not be exhibited in China, but now the country’s leading contemporary artists are being courted by major art collectors abroad and their paintings set records at international auction sales. A local government in Sichuan Province—the area in western China known for its natural beauty, spicy food and talented painters—is taking notice.

It has offered to give eight contemporary artists, all under 60, their own personal museums to operate. The group includes some of China’s best-known avant-garde artists: Zhang Xiaogang, Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun, Zhou Chunya, He Duoling, Zhang Peili and Wu Shanzhuan. All have accepted, and Dujiangyan, a city near the provincial capital, Chengdu, will soon begin construction on an 18-acre plot of land. The museums are scheduled to open in October 2008.

In a country with no major museum of contemporary art—not even in Beijing, where most of the eight artists work—this is a novel development. But in China, everything is changing at warp speed: artists who sold works for $100 in the 1990s have become multimillionaires operating huge studios and driving BMWs. They are helping to transform the style of the country’s biggest cities.

‘‘Modern art used to be neglected,’’' said Lu Peng, an associate professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, who selected the artists. ‘‘Then modern art became popular in the market.’’

The new project, which will also include a public museum, is expected to bolster tourism and to benefit a group of real estate companies that are redeveloping the provincial area. In addition to providing the land, Dujiangyan’s government is investing around $13 million in the museums.

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