Foreign Fellow Lands Gilt Buddha

For all the talk of Chinese interest in works of art, the final bidder left on the top lot at Christie’s Imperial Works of Art sale this weekend was a Brit, as Bloomberg‘s Le-Min Lim tells us:

London dealer Richard Littleton wrested the Buddhist figure, bearing the mark of Ming-era Emperor Xuande, from at least three other Chinese bidders yesterday after rebuffing his last rival seated across the aisle with a HK$70 million ($9 million) offer, against host Christie’s International’s estimate of HK$30 million.

“It’s a very reasonable price for such a rare piece,” said Littleton, in an interview at the saleroom. “I’m confident it will be a very good investment.”

[…] “That foreign fellow really knows his antiques,” said Feng Liu, a New York-based Chinese dealer who watched Littleton bid from the back of the saleroom. “That’s why he got that bronze statue at such a good price; he knows what he’s doing.”

Littleton says the Chinese buyer remains a formidable art- auction opponent.

“Look around the room: a few years ago, only 50 percent were Chinese. These days, it’s more like 90 percent,” Littleton said, after bidding for a ceramic piece. “Occasionally, we manage to slip through with a purchase like this.”