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Bowl fetches record price

An 18th century Chinese ceramic bowl is displayed at Christie's auction house in Hong Kong yesterday. The famille rose bowl was sold for HK$151 million (US$19.5 million), breaking the world record price for Qing dynasty ceramics, Christie's said. PHOTO: AP

A tiny bowl believed to be around 270 years old smashed the record for a piece of Chinese ceramic art at auction yesterday when it was sold for HK$151.3 million (US$19.5 million).

The delicate famille rose bowl, with a swallows design, fetched double its expected sale price of US$70 million-US$80 million. Famille rose refers to the kind of glaze used to coat the bowl.

The bowl, just 11.3cm in diameter, was among US$1.1 billion worth of Asian art, watches and jewelry -- believed to be the largest collection of Asian lots ever assembled -- under the hammer in auction house Christie's autumn sale.

Christie's would give no details of the buyer.

On Sunday, the first day of the four-day sales, a painting by late Chinese artist Xu Beihong (徐悲鴻) sold for HK$53.9 million, setting a record for a Chinese oil painting sold at auction.

Increasingly wealthy Asians are becoming high-profile players in the booming global art market, and Hong Kong has rapidly established itself as the world's third most important art market, after New York and London.
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