Records set at art auction - 30 million yuan By Wang Shanshan and Lin Qi (China Daily) Updated: 2005-11-08 05:46
A colour ink painting depicting 40 parrots on trees - by 86-year-old artist
Wu Guanzhong - went under the hammer for 30 million yuan (US$3.7 million)
yesterday, setting a world record for its genre or, indeed, any piece of
contemporary Chinese art work.
A block of four Chinese stamps and a Chinese oil
painting were also sold for record prices at the same and an earlier auction.
Part of the record-setting colour ink painting
depicting parrots on trees by 86-year-old artist Wu Guanzhong.
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The former world record for a Chinese ink painting of birds by 12th-century
Emperor Huizong was 23 million yuan (US$2.77 million) at a Beijing auction in
April 2002.
The stamps, which were used in 1942 in areas controlled by the Communist
Party of China during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression
(1937-45), fetched 2.2 million yuan (US$277,000).
The stamps were for the use of newspaper reporters to send telegrams,
according to He Xin of China Guardian Auction Co Ltd.
The previous world record for Chinese stamps 1.8 million yuan (US$222,000)
was set at a Beijing auction in spring.
But it is much lower than the world record, set last Wednesday by a block of
four US airmail error stamps, which went for US$3 million, according to the New
York Times.
On Sunday, "Portrait of Ms Jenny," a 1939 oil painting by Chinese artist and
art educator Xu Beihong (1895-1953), was sold for 22 million yuan (US$2.7
million).
The previous record in this category was set in May in Hong Kong
"Juin-October 1985" by Paris-based Chinese artist Zao Wou-ki went for HK$18.04
million (US$2.31 million) at a Christie's auction.
"The market is a bit crazy. Of course, Wu is a master artist, but how could
the price exceed that of the work by Emperor Huizong, who created one of the
greatest works of art in Chinese history?" asked a researcher with the National
Museum of China surnamed Shi.
But Li Da, general manager of the newly founded Beijing Poly Art Auctions Co
Ltd, which conducted the auction, said that industry insiders expected the
records.
Mainland buyers of Chinese art are mainly the nouveau riche, typically real
estate developers, bankers and securities investors in their 30s and 40s, she
said.
Many of them favour contemporary, rather than ancient, art, she added.
Guo, a Chinese Indonesian who bought Wu's painting, said collectors from
across the world are flocking to Beijing in search of good art.
(China Daily 11/08/2005 page1)
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