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Big Buyers in Hong Kong

October 7, 2010 by Marion Maneker

Bloomberg’s Hanny Wan reports from the Classical Chinese paintings sale at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong that doubled the high estimate. The market had a circus atmosphere with the top lot being bid upon and bought by a small boy acting at the direction of an adult. The top ten lots all went to Asian private buyers. Some of those buyers were shopping in bulk:

Nine of the top 10 lots were by Fu, Zhang Daqian or Qi Baishi, including Qi’s “Green Old Age,” that sold to Bao Mingshan, a Suzhou, China-based businessman for HK$11.3 million, including buyer’s commission. Bao bid against Sotheby’s Ching who was representing a client on the telephone and who dropped out after declining to raise his offer to HK$9.4 million because the number “four” isn’t auspicious in Chinese. The picture was one of five Bao bought for a total of more than HK$30 million.

“Thirty million dollars is nothing,” said Bao, wearing a lilac Kappa polo shirt and accompanied by a woman from a Beijing auction house. “I bought even more at the spring auction.”

Mainland Chinese buyers are feeling their oats and enjoying the sport of the sales:

One woman wearing a red sapphire ring and carrying a Chanel bowler handbag on her lap, bought Lin Fengmian’s “Lady Holding a Lotus” for HK$2.9 million including buyer’s premium, compared with its high estimate of HK$1.8 million. After she won, her iPhone, in a Louis Vuitton monogram cover, rang. She turned to the woman next to her after taking the call and jokingly said: “My husband just called. I said I didn’t buy anything.”

Fu, Zhang Dominate Sotheby’s $52 Million Chinese Ink Auction (Bloomberg)

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Filed Under: Collectors Tagged With: Chinese Classical Painting, Hong-Kong

About Marion Maneker

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