This was the piece of calligraphy that made $8.2m at Sotheby’s in New York this week was originally thought to be in the $1m range. That’s one of the reasons the sales blew out the top estimate of $40m to reach $74,077,814. The very strong results for Chinese works of art bodes well for Sotheby’s upcoming Hong Kong sales.

And Sotheby’s is getting excited about those sales which begin October 5th by issuing estimates for the entire cycle of 3,571 lots which might total between US$369,227,000 – 492,937,000. Sotheby’s reports that their Hong Kong auctions are already stocked at a rate 77% higher than last year.