 |
| "Foolish Old Man Removing a Mountain", an oil
painting by Chinese artist Xu Beihong, is exhibited at the Xu Beihong
Memorial Hall in Beijing, capital of China, June 7, 2006. After over 60
years of drifting overseas, it was the first time for the painting to be
displayed in the Chinese mainland. It will be auctioned in Beijing on June
25. (Xinhua Photo) |
BEIJING, June 9 (Xinhua) -- An early draft of a masterpiece of Chinese artist Xu Beihong, will be auctioned on June 25 in Beijing, and the vendors hope it will stay on the Chinese mainland after more than 60 years overseas.
The "Yugong Yishan" or "the foolish old man who removed the mountain" had been auctioned once before in China, but it had never had a mainland owner, said an official with the Beijing Hanhai Art Auction Co..
In the year 2000, a Taiwanese collector bought the superb oil painting in an online auction by the China Guardian Auction Co., Ltd, for 2.5 million yuan (about 310,000 U.S. dollars).
Its price is expected to hit 20 million yuan (2.5 million U.S. dollars) this time, said the Beijing Hanhai official. One of Xu's works was auctioned for a record 16.5 million yuan (2 million U.S. dollars) in 2004.
The draft was produced in 1940 during Xu's stay in India, but was hidden in an abandoned well of an outlying township school in Singapore with hundreds of his other works during World War II.
Xu later sent the painting to the principal of the school in gratitude for his protection of the paintings. Since then, it has remained overseas.
The "Yugong Yishan" was based on an ancient Chinese fable of anold man who is resolved to remove two hills in front of his house by hand with his sons and grandsons.
The final draft of the oil painting is now in the Xu Beihong Museum in Beijing, though it has been restored for several times by conservation experts.
An outstanding contemporary artist, Xu (1895-1953) was most famous for his galloping horses among other traditional Chinese paintings, oils and pencil drawings in a wide range of subjects. Enditem
