SOTHEBY'S auction house will be selling classical Chinese paintings and contemporary Chinese works for the first time in its spring sale next month at the Furama Kempinski Hotel.
There will also be a ceramic jar bearing Tibetan scripts from an English private collection dating back to the Xuande period (1426-1435) of the Ming dynasty, estimated to be worth something between $3 million and $4 million.
It is believed the jar was one of a pair made for the imperial family. Its identical twin stands in the National Palace Museum in Beijing.
Another attraction will be the sale of 30 bamboo carvings from the 16th to 19th centuries worth an estimated $1.5 million to $2 million.
The modern paintings include works by Fu Baoshi and Zhang Daqian. The latter's works were collected by a Swiss lady who befriended him when he visited her home country in 1965. The trip inspired him to paint Dawning Light in Autumn Gorges which sold for a record $8.16 million at Sotheby's in Hong Kong last November.
The classical works are by Hua Yan (1682-1756) and Zhang Xie (1693-1765), two of the most prominent masters of the Yangzhou School. Members of this school were called 'eccentrics' for their unconventional styles and choice of seemingly banal subjects.