Art connoisseurs and collectors will be keen to check out Sotheby's Hong Kong Spring Sales 2012, which will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from tomorrow until April 4.
There are more than 2,900 lots, including fine Chinese ceramics, Chinese paintings, contemporary Asian art, 20th-century Chinese art, modern and contemporary Southeast Asian paintings, jewellery, watches and wines. The auctions are expected to reach in excess of HK$1.8 billion in sales.
Sotheby's Asia CEO Kevin Ching says: 'We are proud to open the spring auction season in Asia with an exciting series of sales. Of particular note, we will offer a Song dynasty washer from the fabled Ru kilns, the ultimate fantasy of collectors through the centuries. We are also very privileged to offer the third instalment of the Meiyintang Collection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains, the grandest collection of its kind in Europe.
'Among the exceptional paintings that we have collected, there is an abstract work by Zao Wou-ki entitled 25.06.86, as well as an early Bloodline - Big Family: Family No.2 by contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang. A dazzling 8.01-carat emerald-cut fancy vivid blue diamond and diamond ring will be the piece de resistance of our exceptional jewels.'
The exceptional jewellery selection promises an explosion of colours, featuring extremely rare blue and pink diamonds, Colombian emeralds, Burmese rubies and Kashmir sapphires of high quality, natural pearls and jadeite pieces.
Quek Chin Yeow, deputy chairman and head of the jewellery department at Sotheby's Asia, says one of the highlights is the 8.01ct emerald-cut fancy vivid blue diamond (about HK$90 million to HK$110 million). 'There has not been an emerald-cut diamond over 8 carats in the auction market for a number of years.'