SPECTACULAR CHINESE PAINTING SOLD FOR A STAGGERING RM 121 MILLION BY SOTHEBY'S. 'PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING' WAS ONLY EXPECTED TO FETCH ONLY RM 35 MILLION! IT WAS FIRST SOLD FOR ONLY RM 900,000 SOME 30 YEARS AGO WHICH ESTABLISHED A RECORD AND NOW IT SOLD FRO RM 121 MILLION! AFTER MY LAMENTATIONS ABOUT SOTHEBY'S NOT DISPLAYING OUR BELEAGUERED RINGGIT ON ITS SCOREBOARD, SOTHEBYS HAS KINDLY REINSTALLED THE MALAYSIAN RINGGIT AHEAD OF THE THAI BAHT! THANKS, SOTHEBYS!

KEE@FSWMAG.COM

Peach Blossom Spring  The Most Important Splashed-Ink-and-Colour Masterpiece From Zhang Daqian’s Late Career 

 AFTER MY LAMENTATIONS THAT OUR BELEAGUERED MALAYSIAN RINGGIT WAS NOT DISPLAYED AT THE SALE OF THE 10.10-CARAT BLUE DIAMOND, SOTHEBYS HAS NOW REINSTATED THE RINGGIT AND PLACED IT AHEAD OF THE THAI BAHT! THANKS, SOTHEBYS FOR REINSTALLING OUR PRIDE!

 SOLD FOR RM 121 MILLION! IT IS NOW IN SHANGHAI'S LONG MUSEUM! GO SEE!
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SOLD FOR HK$271 MILLION / US$34.7 MILLION  To Long Museum in Shanghai After over 100 Bids lasting 50 Minutes   

Far surpassing its High Estimate HK$65 Million / US$8.3 Million  

SETTING WORLD RECORD FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION  

In 1987, Zhang Daqian’s late-career splashed-ink-and-colour masterpiece Peach Blossom Spring (1982) set the auction record for modern Chinese paintings when it was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for HK$1.87 million / US$240,000.  

Well-documented in scholarly works and exhibited in leading museums in the United States, this monumental scroll is considered to be a pivotal work from Zhang’s late years, alongside Mt. Lu, another landscape by Zhang which is currently held by the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. 

It is truly remarkable now that it is returning to Asia from the Mactaggart Art Collection via Sotheby’s after 30 years.  

Zhang Daqian’s Peach Blossom Spring: Property from the Mactaggart Art Collection After living abroad for more than two decades, Zhang Daqian relocated from the United States to Taiwan in 1976, hoping to settle down for a quiet life at his new riverside idyll on the outskirts of Taipei. 

Yet, as the suburb gradually grew into a bustling community, Zhang’s quietude was disrupted, inspiring him to paint a tribute to the peaceful town as he once dreamed of it. On this work, Zhang inscribed a poem to express his lifelong search for such a blissful scene. 

Monumental in scale, vibrant in hue, this feat of artistic creation reaches over two metres in height and employs mineral pigments to create layers and layers of splashed ink evoking a landscape filled with trees. 

The heavenly scene stretches from a blank space at the foot of the scroll, where branches of a blossom tree reach upward in pink shades and a small fisherman boat floats by: the picture of natural tranquillity Zhang sought in person, and brought to life in his art.    

The previous world auction record for Zhang Daqian was set when Lotus and Mandarin Ducks from the Mei Yun Tang Collection achieved HK$1.91 million / US$24.5 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2011.