本帖最后由 not4weak 于 2012-4-5 20:13 编辑
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Thursday, April 05, 2012
An extremely rare Chinese porcelain bowl fetched nearly HK$208m, smashing pre-sale estimates by about three times, as Sotheby’s wrapped up its season’s sale in Hong Kong.
The modest-looking imperial ceramic bowl that was made around 900 years ago had been expected to fetch up to $80m, but was snapped up by an unidentified telephone bidder.
The price sets a record for a piece of ceramic from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), according to Sotheby’s, dwarfing the price for a "Guan" Mallet Vase, which went for $67.52m in 2008.
"The piece is possibly the greatest masterpiece of Song ceramic that we have ever offered in Hong Kong," Sotheby’s Asia deputy chairman Nicolas Chow said. "It is a piece of Ruyao, which is probably the most fabled type of Chinese ceramic ever to have been created."
Eight hopefuls competed for over 15 minutes during intense bidding for the flower-shaped bowl, which Chow said drew worldwide bidders but "mostly from Asia".
"We didn’t know it was going to be such a phenomenon," he said.
"Ru" ceramics — named after one of five large kilns operating under the Song — are the rarest in China, and it is estimated that only 79 complete pieces remain in the world, mostly found in museums.
The "Ruyao Washer" is the only bowl that features an organic floral shape and an opaque glaze.
The interest and price is testament to the vitality of Asia’s art market, which has witnessed explosive growth over the past decade — despite disappointing sales last year amid a fragile global economic outlook.
Sotheby’s five-day sale of wine, jewellery, ceramics, watches and Chinese art — an event seen as a yardstick of Asian collectors’ sentiment — suggested a rebound in the market.
Sotheby’s raked in $468m on Tuesday from its fine Chinese paintings sale, more than double the forecast, in an auction that it said was dominated by "spirited competition from greater China".
The star lot was Chinese painter Qi Baishi’s Willows At The Riverside; Begonias — a rare pair of gold screens depicting Chinese landscape and flowers that fetched $70.1m, tripling its pre-sale estimates. |
发表于 2012-4-5 19:49
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