An abstract oil painting by Chinese-French master Zao Wou-Ki sold for $65.2 million at Sotheby’s Modern Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong. 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 price is a new record for an Asian oil painter, the most expensive work of art ever sold in Hong Kong, and contributed to an HK$1.56 billion ($200 million) sale, making it the city’s highest total for an evening sale.
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.
Zao Wou-Ki was a Chinese-French painter. He was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He graduated from the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, where he studied under Fang Ganmin and Wu Dayu.
He died in Switzerland in 2013 aged 93, painted the work in 1985 at the behest of his close friend and fellow Chinese emigre, architect I.M. Pei. He spent most of the last 65 years of his life in France.
life in France.
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