China’s Xinhua News Agency reports on Poly Auction House’s sale of a Chinese ink painting from mid-20th Century:

An auction in Beijing sold a Xu Beihong painting for 266.8 million yuan (42 million U.S. Dollars) on Monday, smashing previous world records for the father of modern Chinese painting.

The traditional Chinese painting, which portrays three farmers cultivating their land with an ox, […] measures 150 by 250 cm, was completed in 1951,[and is] his largest work after the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

The magnum opus was initially sent to Guo Moruo, a Chinese literary and cultural celebrity and close friend of Xu, as a gift, and was later purchased by a collector, who commissioned the sale to the Poly Auction House.

Xu Beihong painting sells for record 42 mln USD in Beijing (Xinhua)