SCMP Sunday, October 8, 2006
BARCLAY CRAWFORD and FELIX CHAN
After splashing out a world record HK$116.6 million for a Chinese work of art, a mysterious mainland businessman claimed the bronze Buddha was a bargain and he would happily have paid double.
A beaming Cai Mingchao, manager of the Xiamen Harmony Art International Auction Company, outbid fierce competition to secure a rare Sakyamuni Buddha at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong’s Convention and Exhibition Centre yesterday.
Mr Cai refused to reveal the source of his funds and laughed off suggestions he was a Beijing official in disguise. The short, plainly dressed man from Xiamen claimed there had been no central government involvement in the purchase. All he would say was he was part of a “group”.
Mr Cai said he wanted as many people as possible in China to see the 72.5cm tall Buddha. “As long as I am alive I will not sell this and it will not leave Chinese soil again,” he said. “We will exhibit it in a gallery or maybe a temple in Xiamen in about one year. I am not buying this for myself, I am buying it for everyone.
“It has important religious and cultural significance and we will never sell it to anyone else. This was a very cheap price to pay.”
The previous record for a Chinese work of art – excluding ceramics – was the HK$72 million paid for a giant fanglei ritual wine jar at a Christie’s New York auction in March, 2001.
The bronze Buddha was the centrepiece of 15 items which sold for a total of HK$324 million yesterday. The auction hall was packed, mostly with mainland bidders.
The collection of bronzes was put together by London collector Jules Speelman and his father Alfred over some 30 years.
The Buddhas were commissioned by Ming dynasty emperors Yongle and Xuande in the 15th century, but inspired by Tibetan Buddhism, raising the spectre they could have been bought by Beijing for patriotic or propaganda purposes.
Nicholas Chow, head of Chinese works of art for the auction house, said the crowd was the biggest he had seen at an auction in Hong Kong.
“It was one of the greatest works of art we have and it is particularly well priced,” he said.
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A gilt-bronze Buddha in Yongle years of the Ming Dynasty Saturday set a record high auction price of Chinese arts in the world at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Autumn Sales 2006.
The company said the Yongle Shakyamuni bought for 116.6 million HK dollars (14.99 million U.S. dollars) by an Asian art collector set a record high of auction price for Chinese works of arts in the world.
The Yongle Shakyamuni is one of the largest, most opulent bronzes known from the early Ming period in the early 15th century, and is the single most important Yongle metal image of the Buddha. Only two Yongle statues of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni have survived intact with their separately made thrones. And the one under the hammer Saturday is one of the two.
Another equally stunning work is a Tianhuang Carving of a Recumbent Lion by the 17th century master-carver Yang Yuxuan from Zhangpu in Fujian province. The paperweight in the form of a lion is the largest known work by the carver with only one comparable example depicting a ram in the Shanghai Museum. The paperweight also set a record high auction price for Tianhuang stone carving at 39.3 million HK dollars (5.05 million U.S. dollars).
Source: Xinhua