_ "Emperor's Birthday Gift Battles Challenge of China's Modern Art"

圖：蕭芬琪介紹李可染《萬山紅遍》

A woman looks at the painting by Chinese artist Li Keran titled "All the Mountain Blanketed in Red" during a press preview in Hong Kong, Thursday, May 24, 2007. The painting was auctioned May 28 for HK$35 million, an auction record for the artist. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

_ 보관용 기사:
[Emperor's Birthday Gift Battles Challenge of China's Modern Art]

By Le-Min Lim

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- A pair of porcelain bowls, birthday gifts for Emperor Yongzheng, may sell for more than HK$30 million ($3.8 million) today, a test of how traditional Chinese art is holding up against surging prices for post-imperial works.

The two ``Peach Bowls'' from the Yongzheng period (1723- 1735) are the top lot at Christie's International's sale of Imperial Chinese Ceramics in Hong Kong. Yesterday, the auction house sold Li Keran's 1964 painting ``All the Mountains Blanketed in Red'' for HK$35 million, an auction record for the artist. On Sunday, a 1959 work by Zao Wou-ki went for HK$29.4 million, five times the presale estimate.

``The HK$30 million estimate is low'' for the bowls, said Hong Kong-based collector Robert Chang. ``They should be worth more than that, assuming there are no flaws.'' In November, Chang sold a porcelain bowl with the mark of the Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795) for a record HK$151.3 million at Christie's.

Centuries-old pottery from the imperial kilns of the Ming and Qing dynasties has been the bedrock of the biannual Hong Kong auctions by Christies and Sotheby's, with prices for top lots typically far exceeding bids for post-imperial works. That's changing as collectors in Hong Kong follow a global shift that favors modern and contemporary art.

Today's auction is the third day in Christie's five-day sale of 2,300 paintings, ceramics, gems and watches.

Li's painting, inspired by a poem of former leader Mao Zedong, gained the highest price at yesterday's sale of modern Chinese art. In Sunday's auction of 20th century Chinese art, the 1959 painting ``14.12.59'' by China-born Zao was also an auction record for the Paris-based artist, and beat the HK$24.9 million paid for Xu Beihong's 1939 ``Portrait of a Lady.''

Xu's work was expected to be the top lot in the category after his 1939 masterwork ``Put Down Your Whip'' sold for HK$72 million at Sotheby's in April, a record for an Asian picture.

`Artist and Friends'

In Sunday's evening sale of Asian contemporary art, Yue Minjun's ``Portrait of the Artist and His Friends'' fetched HK$20.5 million, also five times the presale top estimate.

The 20th century and contemporary sales attracted hundreds of bidders and bystanders in the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. Wu Guanzhong's 1973 oil painting ``Scenery of Northern China'' was the top lot at HK$31.7 million, double Christie's presale estimate of HK$15 million.

Prices of Chinese paintings and ceramics have soared as the mainland's economy boomed. Ceramics have kept ahead of the gains in contemporary art as buyers such as Stephen Wynn, chairman of casino operator Wynn Resorts Ltd., and Alice Cheng, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's top advisory body, paid millions for antiques at auction and donated them to Chinese museums.

Wynn bought a Ming dynasty vase a year ago for HK$78.5 million and donated it to a museum in Macau, where he was building a casino. Cheng, the buyer of Chang's rice bowl, has donated purchases to the Shanghai Museum.

Composition

China's economic growth since the early 1990s has also spawned new millionaires in the country who have added to the boom in art prices.

``There's a new generation of collectors in their 40s and 50s that have done well in the last 15 years,'' Jonathan Stone, a Hong Kong-based business director at Christie's Asia, said after the Sunday auction. ``Collectors are thinking about the composition of their collections. There's a shift from modern art to contemporary art.''

Prices include a buyer's premium, which is 20 percent for the first HK$4 million, and 12 percent thereafter for each lot.

To contact the reporters for this story: Melanie G. Rogers in Hong Kong at mrogers14@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: May 28, 2007 21:58 EDT