Sotheby’s sales on the 7th of April in Hong Kong achieved a combined total of $98.8 million.
After a period of frantic bidding over the top lot a Guan Vase from the Southern Song Dynasty sold at $14.6 million to the Long Museum, Shanghai. The price was the third highest price achieved for Song ceramics at auction.
There was said to have been up to eight bidders competing for the fine example of Song ceramics. The vase will be displayed at the private Long Museum in Shanghai.
The Song dynasty was marked by two contrasting Confucian concepts of thought, one conservative, the other reformist, propagated by Wang Anshi who proposed idealistic reforms to achieve an ideal social order and a simple, frugal lifestyle.
What would they have thought of $14.6 million for a modest vase?
