An extremely rare Chinese porcelain bowl fetched nearly $27 million on Wednesday, smashing pre-sale estimates by about three times, as Sotheby's wrapped up its season's sale in Hong Kong.
An extremely rare Chinese porcelain bowl fetched
nearly $27 million -- smashing pre-sale estimates by about three times -- at a
hotly anticipated Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The modest-looking imperial ceramic bowl that was made around 900 years ago had been expected to fetch up to HK$80 million, but it was snapped up by an unidentified telephone bidder for HK$208 million ($26.7 million).
The price sets a new record for a piece of ceramic from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), according to Sotheby's, dwarfing the price for a "Guan" Mallet Vase, which went for HK$67.52 million in 2008.
"The piece is possibly the greatest masterpiece of Song ceramic that we have ever offered in Hong Kong," Sotheby's Asia deputy chairman Nicolas Chow said. "It is a piece of Ruyao, which is probably the most fabled type of Chinese ceramic ever to have been created," he told reporters.
Eight hopefuls competed for over 15 minutes during intense bidding for the extraordinarily rare flower-shaped bowl, which Chow said drew worldwide bidders but "mostly from Asia".
"We didn't know it was going to be such a phenomenon," he said.
"Ru" ceramics -- named after one of five large kilns operating under the Song -- are the rarest in China, and it is estimated that only 79 complete pieces remain in the world, most in museums.
The "Ruyao Washer" is the only bowl that features an organic floral shape and an opaque glaze.
The interest and price is testament to the vitality of Asia's art market, which has witnessed explosive growth over the past decade -- despite disappointing sales last year amid a fragile global economic outlook.
Sotheby's five-day sale of wine, jewellery, ceramics, watches and Chinese art -- an event seen as a yardstick of Asian collectors' sentiment -- suggested a rebound in the market.
Sotheby's raked in HK$468 million on Tuesday from its fine Chinese paintings sale, more than double the forecast, in an auction that it said was dominated by "spirited competition from greater China".
The star lot was Chinese painter Qi Baishi's "Willows At The Riverside; Begonias" -- a rare pair of gold screens depicting Chinese landscape and flowers that fetched HK$70.1 million, tripling its pre-sale estimates.
The two-day wine sale series over the weekend also beat estimates and achieved a total of HK$63.6 million after all lots were sold, driven by strong demand in the "mature, classic" Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne.
Hong Kong has emerged as one of the biggest auction hubs alongside New York and London, fuelled by China's economic boom and demand from Asian collectors, especially cash-rich mainland Chinese buyers.
Global art auction sales rose to a record $11.5 billion in 2011, according to France-based market data provider Artprice, with China cementing its spot as the top market with $4.79 billion in sales.
AFP
