WHAT can 300 yuan (US$47.22) buy in Shanghai today? Maybe a decent meal for two, six cinema tickets, or a two-hour massage. But still not enough for a family to see the Dali exhibition currently showcased at Bund 18 or the “Rain Room” at Yuz Museum on West Bund.

Even by booking tickets online and getting a discount, the cost for a family of three to visit the Dali exhibition on the weekend is 360 yuan, the same price for the “Rain Room” exhibition.

Ticket prices to see art exhibitions, especially by big name overseas artists, have sky-rocketed dramatically in recent years.

There’s a simple reason for the increases. Most of the exhibitions are commercial projects operated by private companies and ticket sales are required to cover costs.

In comparison, local art lovers’ visits to a public art museum or gallery involve minimal or no outlay. The cost of attending a “big or special” exhibition is expected to be no more than 20 yuan.

However when the city’s two major public art museums moved to the Outer Ring about two years ago, many artists and art lovers lamented what they called the demise of the downtown art scene.

Gradually the vacuum is being filled by new art operators, such as commercial exhibitors in big shopping malls or public spaces.

The most prodigeous example of the new wave have been last year’s Monet exhibition in the K11 shopping mall on Huaihai Road and this year’s Van Gogh show at Xintiandi.

“Last year, we organized a Monet exhibition at the K11 mall that featured 40 of his original canvases on loan from the Paris Marmottan Monet Museum,” said Xie Dingwei, director at Tix Media, an exhibition organizer.

“We were really surprised that nearly 7,000 visitors came to the show during the first weekend.”

Despite the undergound location and comparatively high admission fee of 100 yuan (US$16.13), more than 60,000 people booked tickets prior to the opening. The waiting queues outside the trendy mall grew so long that one scalper was offering a spot at the front of the line for 150 yuan.

The popular reaction to the Monet exhibition resulted in Xie raising his ticket prices to 130 yuan for group-buys on the Internet and 160 yuan for on-site sales.

“This is all about market demand, not whether the cost is worth it or not,” said Xie. Not so popular, however, is Xie’s exhibition at Bund 18.

“It took me just one hour to see the whole Dali exhibition,” said Jay Wu, a forty-something white collar worker, “Frankly speaking, it is a bit disappointing.

“The venue is too crowded with Dali’s sculptures, and the interior is not high enough to display them.”

Wu compared the Bund 18 show to the big-scale Dali exhibition held at Shanghai Art Museum in 2009. “I can’t remember if it was free or not, but even if it wasn’t, I would only have paid 20 yuan to see that Dali show,” he recalled.

“The museum space and exhibition design were perfect. I wandered around for two hours and it was enjoyable to learn more about surrealism style.”

Similar complaints have been layed against the controversial Van Gogh show at Xintiandi that started this spring. The “Van Gogh Alive — The Experience” was held in a giant tent and its gimmick was to present images of art but not actual artworks.

More than 3,000 high-definition images of Van Gogh paintings were projected on walls, columns, ceilings and even floors, allowing visitors to “walk through” images of famous works such as “The Starry Night” and “Sunflowers.”

There was not an original Van Gogh work to be seen. And admission was not cheap: 110 yuan for weekdays, 130 yuan for weekends, and 160 yuan on holidays.

The exhibition was derided by Shanghai’s serious art community. “If you are a student from an art academy or a professional artist, then you might as well save your money and skip this exhibition,” said local artist Zhu Zhechi.

“This is a purely commercial act showing not a single original Van Gogh canvas. When standing in front of an original canvas, one can feel the master through his brushstrokes and hues, and admire post-impressionism. This exhibition style isn’t worth the ticket price.”

Some visitors even felt cheated. “The ticket cost me 160 yuan, and the moment I stepped into the tent I realized it was worth only 20 yuan,” said Opal Liu, a 30-something local art lover.

When it comes to lighting, security and ventilation, it’s hard to duplicate the ideal environment of a well-run museum.

“An organizer has to provide a comfortable environment that caters to visitor enjoyment and guarantees the security of the artworks,” said artist Zhu.

In parallel with the Dali exhibition at Bund 18, a new Dali exhibition will also be held in the city this November at K11 shopping mall.

The ticket price of the new Dali exhibition is 80 yuan for early birds and 120 yuan on-site.

“During the last 10 years of Dali’s life, he produced too many copies of his works, including sculptures and prints, in order to keep up a luxurious lifestyle with his wife,” art critic Xu Mingsong said.

“His works are easily found in many art locales. To me, the Dali Museum in Spain is the only showcase of the best of his works.” Apart from the big name artists, new pranks are being used to draw attention to exhibitions. “Rain Room” is such an example.

The indoor space has water continually pouring from the ceiling. Sensors are used to control the flow and as soon as someone walks underneath the water shuts off. While it may seem silly to some people, those who experience Rain Room say it’s fun and surreal.

“Some of my friends uploaded their pictures from walking in this Rain Room and it looks fantastic,” said Christine Liu, 26, a white-collar worker. “I wanted to visit, even though the ticket price of 150 yuan is too high.”

Rain Room burst onto the art scene at the Barbican in London in 2012 with Londoners waiting up to three hours to experience it. The following year it was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

“But technology is not art, it is just a popular game to attract urban people,” said Xu Jiahe, the Oriental Morning Post’s art critic. “For me, it doesn’t have any spiritual meaning.”

Xu attended the media preview and would definitely not pay 150 yuan for tickets offering a ten-minute walk in the rain. “You know, the Rain Room in London was free of charge,” she said.

The options are certainly diminishing for many local art lovers being able to visit good exhibitions at a reasonable price.

The “retreatment” of public museums in the city is defaulting their role to commercial exhibitors in shopping malls, replacing the public benefit motive with a profit paradigm.

“I always believe the ‘best of the best’ can be found only in museums,” said artist Zhu Chechi.

“For example, if you want to see the canvas of an impressionist, you go to the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. And Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ should only be seen at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Ticket prices for the museum, undoubtedly, are much cheaper.”