NEW YORK, N.Y.- This morning’s auction at Sotheby’s New York of Classical Chinese Paintings, the company’s first dedicated sale in this field for more than a decade, realized the superb total of $6,467,000 (est. $2.6/3.7 million). The auction, which saw more than 87% of the sold lots achieve sums in excess of their pre-sale estimates, established a strong sell-through rate of 88% by lot. The sale was led by Running Script Transcription of an Epitaph, written for Minister Chen Xinyi by Dong Qichang (1555-1636) who is known as the most influential artist of his time. The painting sold for $782,500 (est. $200/300,000).

Discussing the results, Iris Miao, Head of the Classical Chinese Paintings sale at Sotheby’s New York, said: “We are delighted with the performance of this morning's sale which represented the first dedicated auction of Classical Chinese Paintings at Sotheby's in New York for over ten years. We saw strong participation from the room, telephones and online with multiple bids on nearly every lot and prices exceed estimates across all areas of the sale.”

Henry Howard-Sneyd, Vice Chairman, Asian Art at Sotheby’s, commented: “This was a great way to start our week of Asian art sales. The outstanding results testify to the international nature of this market. With this success we look forward to Classical Chinese Paintings sales becoming a regular fixture of our New York Asia Week sales series.”

A further auction highlight was Thatched Hut in Autumnal Mountains by Dong Bangda, who was admired and highly praised by Emperor Qianlong, which sold for $386,500 (est. $180/250,000). Du Qiong’s Dwelling in the Mountains of Dongyuan also soared above the estimate when it sold for $362,500 (est. $20/30,000). Fan paintings were particularly in demand with Boating by Tang Yin fetching $140,500 (est. $40/60,000); the work was the highlight of a group of fan paintings by the Wu School Masters that were once in the Gong Brothers Collection.