Economy

Wash painting fetches $65.5 million in Beijing

By Zuo Likun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-05-23 14:11

Chinese painter Qi Baishi's work that was sold 425.5 million yuan on Sunday night at a Beijing auction. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

An artwork by Chinese master painter Qi Baishi put under the hammer in Beijing Sunday night fetched a breath-taking 425.5 million yuan ($65.5 million), a sign of investors' unflagging zeal for Chinese art.

The auctioned artwork consists of a wash painting, on which an eagle perches on a pine tree, as well as a matched couplet. Qi (1864 - 1957) is perhaps China's most noted contemporary painter. According to his autograph on the painting, he finished the drawing in 1946 at the age of 86, the prime time of his artistic virtuosity.

The painting's accompanying couplet, "Long Life, Peaceful World", also bore witness to its historic setting when the just ended WWII was still a haunting memory on people's mind and it would have to wait three years of civil war before the People's Republic coming into being.

Besides, the painting, standing one meter wide and 2.66 meters long, is presumed to be Qi's biggest.

The artwork was put under the hammer by auction house China Guardian with an asking price of 88 million yuan. The first bidder upped the ante with a 100 million yuan offer. What followed was a tension-filled bidding process that dragged on for over half an hour with nearly 50 bids, before the drawing was sold to a room bidder for an astonishing price of 370 million yuan, with another 55.5 million yuan for the buyer's premium.

The eye-opening auction price, however, fell slightly short of the all-time record for Chinese art ever put under the hammer. The top spot was narrowly defended by a calligraphy scroll by Huang Tingjian (1045 - 1105) in ancient China's Song Dynasty that was sold for 436.8 million yuan ($67.2 million) last year.

Sunday's auction is hardly the first time Chinese art has made headlines with their skyrocketing prices. An 18th century Chinese vase was sold for $69 million in November in London. At a Hong Kong auction in April last year, an imperial jade seal fetched $12.23 million. In 2009, a Ming Dynasty (1368 -1644) painting raked in 169 million yuan in Beijing, a record at that time.

According to a Wall Street Journal report last month, China's art spending in auctions and galleries has nearly quadrupled to $10.9 billion over the past five years.