Modern Chinese oil painting sold for record US$8.19
Published April 7th, 2007
A Chinese artist’s 1939 painting sold for HK$64 million (US$8.19 million; €6.12 million) at a Hong Kong auction Saturday, setting a new record price for Chinese oil paintings.
“Put Down Your Whip” by Xu Beihong was sold at more than double its earlier estimated price to a collector who bid by telephone, said a spokesman for the U.K.-based auction house Sotheby’s, Eliza Chan.
The previous record price for Chinese oil paintings was set by another painting by Xu, a leading advocate of realist Chinese painting.
In November, an unknown collector bought that work, “Slave and Lion,” for HK$53.8 million (US$6.88 million; €5.14 million) in Hong Kong.
