Reviews: Auction

Treasures under the hammer

The Sotheby's Spring Sales (Hong Kong) will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center from April 7-10 and the preview is touring Asian cities including Bangkok, Taipei, Tokyo and Hong Kong. One highlight is lot 29 in the "Contemporary Chinese Art," an oil painting entitled "Put Down Your Whip," (pictured) created by master Chinese artist Xu Beihong (1895-1953) in 1939 in Singapore. It is estimated approximately at HK$30 million.

The work, expressing the artist's patriotic sentiments in the face of Japanese invasion of China, had been exhibited several times when the artist was still alive, but its whereabouts were unknown for a few decades thereafter. All previous photos published of the painting so far are in black and white.

At this sale, the original colored oil painting will be displayed for the first time since 1954 and auctioned off on April 7 in Hong Kong, said Sotheby's deputy chairman Henry Howard-Sneyd. The historical works of art from the Qianlong Reign of the Qing Dynasty has also drawn intense interest from collectors.

Scheduled to sell on April 8, this theme sale offers five sets of jade pieces from the Qianlong reign, with a total estimate of HK$76-108 million.

Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) assumed a great variety of personas, a warrior, a scholar, a collector and a devout Buddhist, during his 60-year reign on the dragon throne. But above all, the underlying symbolic intent was always to assert his legitimacy as a ruler and his right to the Mandate of Heaven. The five sets of jade wares, including seven Imperial Archer's rings with its original cinnabar box and cover (lot 602), and an imperial inscribed Khotan green jade book (lot 601), each capture a different aspect of his quest for legitimacy.

ZLY

(China Daily 03/22/2007 page20)