Asian works a core area for auctioneers in the Big Apple

A long handscroll of poems about bamboo by scholar-official Li Dongyang in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) sold for more than $4.5 million after only six minutes of bidding at the Christie's Asia Week auction in New York last month, showing that interest in traditional Chinese art remains strong.

Tina Zonars, co-chairman of Asian Art at Christie's, said, "The strong sales rates and prices realized this season reinforce the strength of the market and the global demand across all collecting categories of Asian art."

Christie's Asia Week sales this year totaled more than $79 million.