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Christie’s concluded its sales of Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy and Fine Chinese Modern Paintings on 31 May, 2011 with a total of HK$1,093,107,250/US$140,464,282 (the largest sale in this category at Christie’s), with an overall sold rate of 96% by lot and 97% by value. The sale of Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy totalled HK$135,052,750/US$17,354,278 (89% sold by lot, 83% sold by value), while the sale of Fine Chinese Modern Paintings gained momentum well into the night to achieve a total of HK$958,054,500/US$123,110,003, with 98% sold by lot and 99.8 by value.

Ben Kong, International Specialist Head of Christie’s Chinese Painting Department:
“Recording a growth of over 60% from Autumn 2010, our combined Chinese Paintings sales saw more than 90% of the lots going over the high estimate and the average lot value grow 1.8 times from the same period last year. With 18 lots over HK$10 million (approximately US$128,205), we can see that the Chinese Paintings market is going from strength to strength.

The Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy sale saw competitive bidding that drove many lots to multiple times over the estimate and 86% of the lots going over the high estimate.  The top lot in this sale was a work entitled Poems in Cursive Script Calligraphy by famous Chinese calligrapher Wang Duo (1592-1652).  Estimated at HK$15,000,000 to HK$20,000,000, this lot finally went to the winning bidder for HK$32,020,000/US$4,114,570.

The afternoon session of Fine Chinese Modern Paintings saw a consistently packed auction room where buyers, particularly from Greater China, vied throughout the ten-hour sale for the best works from modern masters such as Zhang Daqian, Wu Guanzhong, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and Li Keran. The top lot was Lotus, a work by modern master Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) that sold seven times over the high estimate for HK$56,660,000/US$7,280,810. Competitive bidding was such that 93% of the lots sold over their high estimates and 15 lots sold over HK$10,000,000.  

From these very encouraging results, we can see the tremendous surge in demand for rare and quality works, which bodes well for the continuous growth of the Chinese Paintings category.”