Chinese oil painting sells for GBP 6.3m
4th April 2011
A Chinese oil painting by artist Zhang Xiaogang has sold for HKD 79 million (GBP 6.3 million).
The piece of work, which covers three panels, is called Forever Lasting Love and was created in 1988.
It depicts a number of half-naked figures on a desert landscape, accompanied by an emaciated ram and dead trees.
According to Sotherby's, which sold the work, the amount the painting went for was the highest a piece of contemporary Chinese art has ever fetched at auction.
The record had been held by a Zeng Fanzhi canvas, which sold for HKD 75 million in 2008.
Evelyn Lin, head of contemporary Asian art at Sotheby's, said Forever Lasting Love was 'a monumental museum-quality work from a defining period of the Chinese avant-garde'.
The painting had been owned by Belgian collector Baron Guy Ullens who, according to the Beijing review, recently donated CNY 1 million to the China Foreign Affairs University.