High price arts collector Liu Yiqian's purchases

308 million yuan (($46.4 million)

Nov 20, 2010

Guardian's 2010 Autumn Auction

Ping'an Tie

The caoshu (cursive script) calligraphy piece Ping'an Tie (Safety Wish Script), by Wang Xizhi, a renowned calligrapher of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), was recognized as a valuable piece, once praised by Emperor Qianlong and had been owned by many famous collectors in history.

The script copy formerly constituted nine lines of characters. But it was torn into two parts, and the 24.5-cm-long, 13.8-cm-wide piece that was sold on Saturday is the first part with four lines composing 41 characters.

Although it was impossible to find out the exact year it was created, archaeologists believe the scroll came out in the 7th century, or even earlier.

Wang, who lived in the Jin Dynasty around the 4th century, is traditionally acclaimed as the Sage of Calligraphy. However, none of his original works exist, making this cursive script, named Ping'an Tie especially rare for its high quality copy and the clear history of the succession of its collectors, which date back to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).