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Culture: Chinese ink masterpiece sells for 184m yuan

Wan Shan Hong Bian, or Thousands of Hills in a Crimsoned View, painted by Li Keran (1907-89) in 1964, fetched 184 million yuan at a Beijing sale on Monday night. The piece triggered heated bidding between three bidders at auction company China Guardian's night sale of Chinese paintings. Li was inspired by a famous verse, "I see thousands of hills in crimsoned view, the woods piling up in deep dye", from Chairman Mao Zedong's poem Qin Yuan Chun - Changsha in 1925. Li created seven paintings of different sizes under the same title between 1961 and 1964.