A leading mainland art auction house will hold its first Hong Kong sale next month, offering traditional Chinese ink paintings and calligraphy, as well as classical Chinese furniture from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
China Guardian Auctions yesterday announced it would hold a two-session sale on October 7 featuring close to 400 pieces of art. Among them are a rare "album" of colour ink paintings by Qi Baishi consigned from Japan, a landscape by Li Keran and a large painting of a flying eagle by Xu Beihong. All three are among the top 10 best-selling artists at auctions worldwide, according to Artprice Art Market Trends 2011.
An early Qing huanghuali kang table and a yoke back armchair from the same period are also on offer.
The pre-sale estimate for the furniture session is HK$65 million and HK$120 million for the Chinese ink paintings and calligraphy.
Director and president of China Guardian Auctions Wang Yannan said the company - whose sales in 2011 totalled 11.2 billion yuan - was looking to expand and Hong Kong was the most logical place to go first.
"Hong Kong is so close to where we are and it is culturally and economically very active," said Wang, daughter of former Chinese Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang . "It has a long tradition of collecting and very strong collector support. For us, after 19 years of operation, we are looking into expansion and getting into a place like Hong Kong with … commercial efficiency that is maybe the highest in the world."
She said China Guardian's commitment to Hong Kong was long term and that it would be holding at least two auctions every year.