A NEW WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR AN ASIAN WORK OF ART A RARE AND IMPORTANT YUAN DYNASTY JAR SELLS FOR £15.7 MILLION /$27.7 MILLION / €22.7 MILLION AT CHRISTIE’S LONDON
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art
Christie’s King Street
12 July 2005
London – Christie’s sold the most expensive Asian Work of Art ever today when an exceptionally rare and important blue and white jar, Yuan Dynasty, 14th century, realized £15,688,000 /$27,679,100 / €22,731,912. After a fierce bidding battle with over six clients vying over the telephone and in the room, the jar was eventually acquired by skenazi Ltd for a private buyer. This is not only a world record price ever paid for any Chinese Work of Art, it is also the highest
price paid for any work of art sold at Christie’s this year.
Desmond Healey, Director and Head of Department, said: “We are delighted with this record breaking result. This is an exceptional Chinese work of art, preserved for centuries in exquisite condition, and was a very rare piece to come to the market.”
Dating from the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), the rare, and previously unrecorded, blue and white guan jar is finely decorated with a narrative scene in vibrant underglaze cobalt blue. The jar, which depicts scenes from contemporary literature, is thought to be one of only eight to have survived to the present day. Featuring a peony scroll band around the shoulders and a petal band around the
base, the jar has vividly painted scenes from the story of the conflict between the states of Yan and Qi in the Warring States period (AD475-221). A figure in a cart, pulled by a tiger and a leopard, follows two foot soldiers running by a stream. Over the bridge is a scholarly figure on a piebald
horse looking across a rocky landscape to another horseman. The jar was acquired in China by Captain Baron Haro van Hemert, a keen collector of art, who was in the Dutch Marine Corps, and was stationed in Beijing from 1913 to 1923.
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NOTES TO EDITORS
FORMER WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ASIAN ART AND CHINESE CERAMICS:
1) A highly important massive Bronze Ritual Wine Jar, Fanglei Late Shang/Early Western Zhou Dynasty
Sold at: CHRISTIE'S New York
Sold on: 20/3/2001
Lot:156
Sold for: US$9,246,000
2) Massive Blue and White Porcelain 'Pilgram' Flask
Yuan Dynasty
The F. Gordon Morrill Collection - Chinese & Chinese Export Porcelain
Sold at: Doyle, New York
Sold on: 16/09/2003
Lot: 74
Sold for: US$5,831,500
Former Highest Price for any work of art sold at Christie’s this year:
Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale
May 4, 2005, New York
LOT PRICE ESTIMATE BUYER
7 $27,456,000 £14,526,984/€21,283,721 $8,000,000-12,000,000 Anonymous
Constantin Brancusi, Oiseau dans l’espace, 1922-1923
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR A SCULPTURE
For Immediate Release
12 July 2005
Contact: Christina Freyberg 020 7389 2664 cfreyberg@christies.com
Catherine Manson 020 7389 2664 cmanson@christies.com
