BEIJING, Oct. 10 -- The sale of Chinese treasures looted from Qing palaces by foreign troops fetched record prices in Hong Kong Tuesday, given heavy bidding by Chinese buyers eager to repatriate such objects from the West.
A white jade seal carved in 1796 to mark the abdication of Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) Emperor Qianlong was the most expensive item - going for 46.2 million HK dollars (US$5.9 million).
It broke the record for any Chinese white jade or imperial seal ever sold at auction after an intense round of bidding by bidders from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
The squat, round seal inscribed with a poem had been looted from the Hall of Imperial Longevity in Beijing in 1900 by a French soldier.
The seal was sold six months ago in France for around a quarter of the price, Sotheby's said, reflecting the high premium that Chinese buyers were willing to pay for such looted artworks.
"These objects are far more important historical relics than porcelains; they have a lot more history," said Nicolas Chow, Sotheby's international head of Chinese ceramics and artwork.
"These were items that were handled by the emperor."
The buyer was from the mainland and bought several other rare imperial seals at the sale.
"There's a great interest in repatriating these objects back to China," Chow said.
A total of 325.8 million HK dollars was paid for the 34 "lost treasures" on offer, exceeding the pre-auction estimate of 25 million dollars.
Sotheby's said that most of the buyers hailed from China's mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan but didn't give specifics. Richard Littleton, a New York-based dealer present at the sale, said mainland buyers were now giving Western dealers "an extraordinarily good run for our money."
"Chinese interest pushes the prices up substantially, so we see this happening now around the world," said Littleton who bought a tiny "bamboo" seal at the sale, after losing out to Chinese bidders for other treasures including a Qing brushpot.
A bronze horse head, looted from Beijing's Old Summer Palace in 1860 - which would have been the star lot - was sold ahead of the auction to Macao gambling tycoon Stanley Ho for 8.9 million U.S. dollars. Ho has since donated it to the Chinese government.
A pair of bronze vase "Yuanmingyuan War Trophies," looted from China by British troops in 1860, sold for 1.3 million dollars.
But Nader Rasti, an Asian art dealer from London who attended the sale, said some objects, like a few jades, were greatly overpriced and had tenuous links to the looted Qing palaces.
"It's a very clever presentation by these auction houses and it has an effect," he said.
(Source: Shanghai Daily)
