Zhang Xiaogang's Forever Lasting Love (1988) became the most expensive contemporary Chinese painting in history when it was sold for HK$79.06 million in a Sotheby's Hong Kong auction last night.
The triptych, which was exhibited in the China Avant-Garde Exhibition in 1989, had been expected to fetch between HK$25 million and HK$30 million. The second-most expensive paintings in the sale were Zhang Peili's Series 'X?' No.3 (1986) and Zhang Xiaogang's Blood Series: Chen Weimin (1993). Expected to fetch HK$2.5 million and HK$7 million respectively, they both sold for the identical HK$23.06 million.
They were among 105 lots from The Ullens Collection - The Nascence of Avant-Garde China, which belonged to the renowned Belgian art collector Baron Guy Ullens and included mainly works by sought-after artists from the 1980s and 1990s. The lots fetched a total of HK$427 million.
Ullens is regarded as the most important international collector of Chinese contemporary art, amassing a huge collection and opening his contemporary art museum in Beijing in 2007 - the Ullens Centre. It is also the largest non-profit exhibition space at Beijing's 798 art zone.
However, last month the Ullens Centre was criticised for cancelling a planned retrospective of the controversial artist Ai Weiwei . The move was widely considered politically motivated, but Ullens denied it.
Earlier, Sotheby's concluded its two-day wine sale, The Ultimate Cellar, which fetched HK$96.8 million, well over the pre-sale estimate of HK$77.4 million. The top lot, a case of Romanee Conti 1990, sold for HK$1.8 million. Strong prices were seen in the best vintages from top Burgundy producers, demonstrating the increasing appeal of Burgundy in Asia, said the auction house.
