Ancient Chinese bronze dish sells for US$27m at auction

A bronze Chinese dish about 2,000 years old has fetched a record price at auction, according to media reports.

The vessel dating from the Western Zhou dynasty (1046BC-771BC) was sold in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province on Saturday for 185 million yuan (US$27.3 million), according to the news website Cankaoxiaoxi.com.

The price set a new record for “Chinese antique art”, according to media reports.

Three people competed for the piece, including a local well-known art collector, the news website said.

The collector won the auction, but said he was bidding on behalf of an unnamed friend.

The basin, the “Xi Jia pan”, was named after its owner, a high-ranking official during the Western Zhou dynasty. He was the main collector of China’s earliest known collections of poems the Book of Songs.