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Chinese relics attract fierce bidding, record sales at Sotheby's auction
中国遗物拍卖会竞价激烈
A rare Guan vase from the Southern Song Dynasty was sold for US$14.6 million at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong Tuesday.
The vase was created for the the imperial court of Southern Song dynasty (1127 to 1279 AD).
After a tense bidding war, the Guan vase was snapped up by famed Chinese collector and founder of Shanghai's Long Museum, Liu Yiqian.
The US$14.6 millioN selling price was nearly double the high estimate of US$7.7 million.
Sotheby's Asia Deputy Chairman Nicholas Chow says the coveted vase, considered one of the finest examples of Song ceramics to come onto the market, is headed to a worthy home.
"There was a very, very, very long fight over this piece. There were about eight bidders. It was won over by Liu Yiqian, who is perhaps now one of the greatest forces in the Chinese art market. And it will be repatriated to China for the first time in maybe a century or over a century. So it's really wonderful; it's a great story. And it will be displayed at the Long Museum, which is one of, probably, the greatest private museums in China at this moment," Chow said.
Another item that attracted fierce phone bidding was the white jade 'Yongzheng Yubi Zhi Bao' Seal with its original ivory-inlaid box and cover from the Qing dynasty, Kangxi period. It sold for a whopping US$13.5 million.
"Yes, the seal that we just sold for HK$105 million is probably the most expensive Yongzheng (Yubi Zhi Bao) seal ever to come on the market. In fact, it's only one of two, one of five, jade seals that he ever had made. These are objects that fascinate, that have been fascinating collectors in the past 10, 15 years, because this is an object the emperor has touched. He would have used it on his own paintings. And here you're getting very, very, very close to imperial power with an object like that," Chow said.
The seal face translates as "Treasure penned by his Majesty, Emperor Yongzheng," and the seal has an imprint of the emperor's own calligraphy and paintings.
Emperor Yongzheng is celebrated among historians and connoisseurs as a distinguished aesthete and art patron. Under his brief 13-year rule, the imperial workshops within the Forbidden City came into full bloom by virtue of the emperor's meticulous involvement in production and quality control.
