I Might Actually Get To See This One Myself! ** DB
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“Hong Kong (AFP) – Hong Kong police on Wednesday searched for a valuable painting mistakenly dumped in a landfill after it sold for $3.7 million at auction, reports said.
Grand Hyatt hotel cleaners were suspected of dumping the painting, which sold on Monday for more than HK$28.75 million ($3.71 million), along with rubbish that was taken to a landfill, the paper said, citing an unnamed police source.
Poly Culture did not comment immediately when contacted by AFP.
Police suspected the painting was thrown out by cleaners after viewing security camera images but would not rule out the possibility of it having been stolen, media reported.
Police told AFP a theft case was reported on Tuesday by an auction house staff member regarding a painting, without giving further details.
A Grant Hyatt spokeswoman would not confirm if the painting had been dumped as trash but said hotel staff did not handle items sold at the auction because they were too expensive.
She said in an emailed statement to AFP that organisers would hire their own security and contractors for such events involving “high-value” items.
The spring sale was the first major auction organised by Poly Culture in Hong Kong following its stock debut in March.
Poly Culture Group, the world’s third largest auction house by revenue behind Sotheby’s and Christie’s, is a subsidiary of state-run conglomerate Poly Group. . . .
A 15th-century ceramic cup from the Ming Dynasty will be included in a Sotheby’s (BID) auction next month in Hong Kong, after the seller retracted an earlier decision to pull the sale.
The cup, valued at HK$200 million ($26 million) to HK$300 million, will be offered at Sotheby’s on April 8, according to Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia and International Head of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art.
The seller, a Swiss collector in his nineties who had earlier asked to pull the cup from the sale, changed his mind, said Giuseppe Eskenazi, who originally sold the piece to the collector in 2000 and is advising the seller.
The cup was promoted in a March 6 press release by Sotheby’s as a “potential record breaker” and is considered the finest piece of Chinese ceramics in private hands. It comes from the Meiyintang Collection, whose owner has vacillated over selling it, said Eskenazi, a London-based dealer who originally sold the piece to him in 2000.
“It’s such a great treasure, he didn’t want to part with it as he treasured it so much,” Eskenazi, who helped the seller place pieces with Sotheby’s before, said by telephone today. “But finally, he agreed a few hours ago to go ahead.”
Eskenazi, who bought the cup for almost HK$30 million in 1999, sold it one year later to its present owner.
“This is the most valuable piece of porcelain in any private collection,” he said.
The cup, made for the Chenghua emperor (1465-1487) is considered the most rare of Chinese ceramics and may set an auction record, according to the Sotheby’s press release. It has been nicknamed the “Chicken Cup” because it depicts a rooster, his hen and their chicks, an allegorical representation of the emperor, the empress and their subjects.
“We are very excited to present this in the sale,” Chow said by telephone. “It is the single most expensive, single most sought after Chinese porcelain ever offered at auction.”
The “Chicken Cup” is only 8 centimeters (3.1 inches) in diameter, delicate and dainty, . . . .
Exhibition: “Chinese, Indian and Southeast Asian Galleries”
Location:
The Cleveland Museum of Art 11150 East Blvd., ClevelandOpening Date: Jan. 2., 2014
Cost of Admission: Free
Further Information: www.clevelandart.org
The Cultured Muse 