CRI听力:Hong Kong: Record Breaking Prices at Rare Art Auction

Renowned Chinese artist Zhang Daqian's painting, called "Peace Blossom Spring," went for 35 million US dollars, including the buyer's premium.

This was more than 3-times the initial estimate by Sotheby's.

Long Museum in Shanghai won the bid after competing against other Chinese private museums, including buyers from Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Kevin Ching, Sotheby's Asia Chief Executive Officer, said this bidding has set a new record for Sotherby's auctions in Hong Kong.

"The bidding war actually started and actually lasted for over 50 minutes, and it took over a hundred bids to get to the final hammer price. The record breaking hammer price of 271 million Hong Kong dollars. This is a record obviously for the artist. It's a new world record, and the actual bidding process, almost an hour, over a hundred bids, that itself actually is also a record for Sotheby's auctions in Hong Kong."

The painting measures some 82 inches by 36 inches, and shows an idyllic place where Zhang dreamt of living.

Also in the same auction, the bidding price for the 10.10-carat blue diamond, originally called the "De Beers Millennium Jewel 4," reached 32 million US dollars, again including buyer's premium.

This sale has set a new record price for blue diamonds sold in Asia.

Sotheby's says it's the largest oval-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond ever to appear at auction.

David Bennett, the Worldwide Chairman of Sotheby's International Jewellery Division, said he was happy with the result, and that the recent economic downturn did not appear to pose a threat to the auction.

"It's the highest price ever paid for a jewel in Asia. The previous record actually was also here which was the 118 carat oval D colour internal flawless diamond that we sold a couple of years ago, for 30.6 million (US) dollars. So it (blue diamond) comfortably exceeds that. Blue diamonds are, as you all know, extremely rare, they basically come from principally one reliable mine source in the world, the Cullinan mine in South Africa. Whenever they appear at auction, they are extremely sought after."

The Sotheby's spring auction runs 2-6 April at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Earlier in the week, an oil painting by contemporary Chinese artist Wu Guanzhong was sold for around 30 million US dollars at the Poly Auction Hong Kong, which smashed the record for the most expensive Chinese oil painting sold at auction.

For CRI, this is Li Jianhua.