New Record for Asian Art

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed)
Nov 30th 2006 at 6:03PM

A new sales record for art sold in Asia was set when a woman at a Christie's Hong Kong auction paid $19.4 million (£10 million) for a small Qing dynasty bowl. Bizarrely, the woman's brother, who is known to have one of the world's best collections of Chinese art, offered the bowl at the auction. This brings up the question as to whether the woman and her brother planned for this to be the outcome of the auction, although why one would set out with the intent to set an auction bidding record remains to be seen. The woman said that she had not expected to buy the bowl; it was a "spur-of-the-moment decision" and that "[her] interest grew during the bidding process"

[Thanks, Lana!]

Tags: art, asia, auction, bowl, christie's, dynasty, hong kong, qing, vase

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Rich Nov 30th 2006 9:41PM

sounds like it was a ploy to hike up the bidding price..

Ruffage Dec 8th 2006 12:45AM

Usually when the price goes up to that kinda level, I expect to see something really nice and unique.

That Qing bowl looks really ordinary. Like something you will find in Chinatown's $1 stores. Even if you insist on quality and on having it hand-crafted, I've seen similar bowls in gallerys in Hong Kong and they cost at most $200.