Sotheby's is holding a series of sales in Hong Kong, and the numbers continue to be impressive. The Fine Chinese Paintings sale offered 341 lots with 316 lots selling for a very strong and impressive 92.7% buy through rate. The sale totaled $60 million (including buyers premiums) and more than doubled the pre sale estimate total of $25.6 million. The sale totaled 92% by value. The top selling lots was by Qi Baishi, Willows at the Riverside, Begonias which sold for $8.98 million. The top ten lots were all sold to Asian private collectors.
Sotheby's reported on the sale
Source: Sotheby's
Hong Kong, 3 April 2012 3 April 2012 C C.K. Cheung, Head of Sotheby's Fine Chinese Paintin C C.K. Cheung, Head of Sotheby's Fine Chinese Paintings Department s Department s Department, commented after the sale: “Our ability to source outstanding works by prominent modern Chinese artists, many of them from private collections in Europe, the United States and around Asia allowed us to put together a sale which saw spirited competition from Greater China and resulted in a strong sell-through rate and sale total of HK$468 million / US$60 million, more than doubling the pre-sale estimate (in excess of HK$200 million). The star lot of the sale was a very rare pair of gold screens by Qi Baishi depicting Chinese landscape and flowers which had spent much of its history in a Japanese collection. Executed at the height of Qi’s popularity and displaying his masterful technique, the pair was pursued by three very determined collectors and ended by tripling the pre-sale high estimate to sell for HK$70.1 million / US$9 million.”
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