Shanghai art experts question US$8.2m work of calligraphy

A famous ancient Chinese calligraphy piece which auctioned for US$8.2 million at Sotheby's in New York in September was challenged by experts from the Shanghai Museum.

The museum's three researchers on ancient calligraphy and paintings told the local yesterday that they would soon publish an academic paper questioning the authenticity of by the acclaimed Song Dynasty poet Su Shi, which was bought by a private curator in Shanghai and is slated for exhibition in the city next year.

They say the calligraphy under scrutiny, written about a thousand years ago, was a copy made less than 200 years ago in the late Qing dynasty.

"The writing in the auctioned work consisted mainly of side strokes, the lines are all thin and lifeless, they lack dimension and are boring," the report said, citing one of the researchers, Ling Lizhong . "Such penmanship does not in any way resemble that of Dongpo."

Su also goes by the name Su Dongpo.

The buyer, Liu Yiqian , owner of the Long Museum in Shanghai, told news portal Sina late last night that he had contacted Sotheby's, and the auction house would set up a panel of global experts to examine the calligraphy.