Tibetan tapestry fetches record $45 million in Hong Kong
A 600-year-old Tibetan silk tapestry has set a world record for Chinese art after it was sold for $45 million at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong.
An ancient Tibetan silk tapestry has set a world record for Chinese art after it was sold for $45 million at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong.
The 600-year-old artwork, called a thangka and embroidered in vivid hues of red and gold, was bought by Liu Yiqian on Wednesday and will be displayed at his new museum in Shanghai, the auction house said.
The sale broke the world record for any Chinese work of art sold by an international auction house.
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The piece — which depicts the meditational diety Raktayamari, known as the Red Conqueror of Death, standing stride a buffalo — was created during the Ming dynasty between 1402 and 1424.
It is one of a set of three thangkas from the Jokhang Monastery in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, according to Christie’s.
In April, Liu bought a Ming Dynasty wine cup which broke the world auction record for Chinese porcelain in Hong Kong for $36.05 million.
A taxi driver-turned-financier now aged 50, Liu is one of China’s wealthiest men and among the country’s new class of super-rich scouring the globe for artwork. He is worth an estimated $1.6 billion.
