China Guardian Auctions hit $385m for fall sales

Wu Guanzhong, A Dream of the Shenyuan Garden. Photos provided to chinadaily.com.cn

China Guardian Auctions wrapped up a total turnover of 2.35 billion yuan ($385 million) for its fall sales in Beijing.

Ink paintings and calligraphy registered a consistently strong performance with two auction records for artists.

An album of eight mountain-and-wash paintings by Dong Bangda, a Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) official, painter and calligrapher, fetched 50.6 million yuan. The landscapes portray eight sites linked to Ge Hong, an Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 317-420) Taoist and alchemist.

A calligraphic hand scroll, in which painter Gong Xian composed 24 poems in running script (xingshu), was sold for 26.45 million yuan. Gong was a member of the "Eight Masters of Jinling Painting School" that burgeoned in late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing dynasties.

The auction also put up for sale 450 items of furniture, ancient books and articles of amusement from the collection of noted late art connoisseur Wang Shixiang. Among them, a table made of precious Huanghuali wood, which was Wang's first collection of Ming-style furniture, fetched 12.65 million yuan.

Tajik Bride, a 1983 oil portrait by Jin Shangyi, who spearheaded the neo-classicism wave in Chinese oil painting, fetched 85.1 million yuan, a record for the artist.