A ten-metre-long triptych by Zao Wou-Ki — one of the 20th century’s most prominent Chinese painters — fetched about 477 crores(HK$510 million) at auction Sunday, Sotheby’s Hong Kong said. Entitled Juin-Octobre 1985, the abstract artwork was commissioned personally by the world-renowned Chinese-American architect IM Pei.
Zao and Pei were both born to affluent bankers during the Chinese Republican era. They first met in Paris in 1952 and began a long-running friendship, according to the auction house. This is the most valuable painting sold by any auction house in Hong Kong. The previous record for a single Asian work of art sold at auction was in 2010 in Beijing, when an ancient hand scroll sold at Poly International Auction Co. for $64 million.
The painting represents a period of Zao’s career which marks “a perfect example of how he merged Eastern and Western techniques and philosophy into the painting,” said Vinci Chang, head of modern Asian art at Sotheby’s, at a preview last week.
Zao-Wou-Ki is one of the very few Chinese Modern artists whose recognition has ascended to a global level. According to Artprice’s Annual Report on the Global Art Market in 2017, he is the tenth most heavily traded artist in the world, with a total turnover of US$156 million. Hong Kong auction houses have seen frenzied bidding among Asian buyers in recent years, with sales of diamonds, paintings and ancient ceramics shattering world records.
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