RECORD FOR SALE OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART AT SOTHEBY's SOTHEBY’S SPRING SALE OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART IN HONG KONG TOTALS HK$214,472,400 (US$27,439,598)
RECORD FOR SALE OF MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART AT SOTHEBY’S
sold for HK$8,160,000 to an Asian private collector (lot 11, est. HK$7/15 million) and demonstrates the artist’s mature technique, and Composition No. 268, dated 1967-68, which brought HK$7,040,000, selling to an Asian private collector (lot 8, est. HK$6/8 million), an example of the artist’s earlier technique of expressing the artistry of traditional Chinese paintings through Western-style oil painting.
PART II - CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART
No fewer than six bidders pursued Zhang Xiaogang’s exceptional Tiananmen No.1, one of his rare canvases dealing directly with concrete political events, which sold for HK$15,440,000 to an Asian private collector over the phone (lot 158; est. HK$5/7 million). Other works by Zhang Xiaogang included his Big Family Series, 2006, which brought HK$5,920,000, selling to an Asian private collector (lot 157, est. HK$5/7 million), and Little Graduate (From My Dream), 2005, which achieved HK$5,360,000, selling to a European private collector (lot 159, HK$2.5/3.5 million).
The section also featured Liu Ye’s Sinking Ship, which sold for HK$7,040,000, a record for the artist at auction, to a European private collector over the telephone (lot 105; est. HK$2/3 million). Executed in 1995, Sinking Ship depicts a pair of Chinese cherubim against a background of smoke-streaming warplanes which have caused a ship to sink. It is a major early example of the artist’s work, suffused with trademark characteristics of innocence and a wry sense of humour.
Works depicting Mao Zedong also sold particularly well today, doubling their high estimates: Yan Peiming’s Mao, 1998, brought HK$4,080,000, selling to a European buyer (lot 79, HK$1.6/2 million), and Zeng Fanzhi’s Mao, a nine-panel composition from the We series, sold for HK$3,840,000, (lot 67, 2
est. HK$1.2/1.8 million).
*This also exceeds any price paid for a work by a Japanese or Korean artist.
**Estimates do not include buyer’s premium.
