Chinese silk scroll fetches 1.9m euros

Emperor Kangxi's South China Tour (Part) [Photo/Xinhua]

Two fragments of a silk handscroll depicting a historically important trip by China's longest-serving Emperor, Kangxi, fetched 1.89 million euros ($2.62 million) at an auction in Bordeaux, France, on March 8, 2014.

The auctioneer, Alain Briscadieu, said that one piece measuring 2.5m x 0.68m had a 250,000 euro ($346,398) opening bid and sold for 1.17 million ($1.62 million) euros.

The winning bid for the other 3.28m x 0.68m fragment hit 720,000 euros ($997,572), which was made by an Asian client via telephone - the bid started at 200,000 euros ($277,107).

The two pieces of scroll on offer is said to be part of the sixth in a celebrated series of 12 painted by the artist Wang Hui (1632-1717) to record an inspection tour of southern China by Emperor Kangxi.

Six of the 12 series are stored in Beijing's Palace Museum, while two are in Paris and one is in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Another piece is in Canada, while another two pieces are reportedly lost.

The sixth series put on auction this time is alleged to belong to a private French collector, which was split in the 1930s and passed to different inheritors.