An oil painting which was hidden in a dry well in Singapore for
10 years was auctioned for 33 million yuan (US$4.12 million) in
Beijing on Sunday, a record for a Chinese oil painting.
The Silly Old Man Moves a Mountain, or YuGong
YiShan in Chinese, which was painted by master artist Xu
Beihong (1895-1953) in 1939 during his stay in Singapore, was
snapped up by an unnamed mainland collector.
The previous record was 28.12 million yuan (US$3.5 million), set
when a painting of lotus flowers by Paris-based Chinese artist San
Yu was sold at a Christie's auction in Hong Kong in April.
The Silly Old Man is based on a millennia-old Chinese
fable of an old man who devoted all his life digging away a
mountain which blocked his family's access to the outside world.
The firm belief that his sons, grandsons and even great-great
grandsons would one day clear the mountain finally moved the god,
who had the mountain removed.
Chairman Mao Zedong cited the fable in his works to illustrate
the importance of perseverance and revolutionary resolve, making Yu
Gong, the "Silly Old Man," a household name.
Xu hid the artwork in a dry well at a school in the suburbs of
Singapore before he came back to China in 1941, on the eve of the
Pearl Harbor attack, according to Xu Qingping, president of Xu
Beihong Art School of Renmin University in Beijing and son of the
master artist.
Ten years later, the school headmaster took the painting out and
wrote Xu a letter about returning it, but the artist wrote back and
gave it to the headmaster as a gift.
The painting appeared in the art market on the Chinese mainland
and Taiwan several times from the 1980s before a Taiwanese
collector bought it for 2.5 million yuan (US$312,500) at an online
auction on www.guaweb.com.
When the collector consigned it to Beijing Hanhai Art Auction Co
Ltd this month, the bottom price was set at 15 million yuan
(US$1.87 million). Its hammer price reached 30 million yuan
(US$3.75 million), and the final price included a 10 per cent
premium.
"The record price can be explained by the rarity of Xu's
large-sized artworks in the market and also by his indisputable
genuineness as reflected in the piece," said Zhang Yuejin,
vice-president of the auction house.
(China Daily June 27, 2006)
