"Zhi Chuan Moving to Mountains," by Yuan Dynasty painter Wang Meng

The spring auction season continues with a robust Asian sale series in China. Beijing Poly International Auction Corporation Limited and Council Auction House are among the many participants offering Chinese antiques and paintings that are expected to fetch a high price.

49 contemporary art pieces, collected by Belgian collector Baron Guy Ullens, are to be auctioned off by Beijing Poly Auction House in the capital. This batch of lots include masterpieces by prestigious contemporary Chinese artists created in China during the mid 1980s.

The Asian sale series also features more than twenty items by late artist Wu Guanzhong, covering genres from water-ink to oil paintings.

"Lion Woods," one of Wu's pieces, is expected to set a new sales record.

Jia Wei, contemporary dept. of Beijing Poly Auction Company, said, "This painting makes a subtle combination of lines, dots and colors. Only two pieces of such large size made by Wu are seen in the market. One is housed by the National Art Museum of China. So this one left is the only piece authorized for circulation in the market."

This spring season the auction market still favors Chinese paintings of olden times. One fine example is "Zhi Chuan Moving to Mountains," by Yuan Dynasty painter Wang Meng some six hundred years ago.

The reserve price of the piece is an astonishing 160-million yuan, or some 25-million US dollars.

Zuo Xinyang, Ancient Painting Dept., Beijing Poly Auction Company, said, "This painting reflects the inner thoughts of the intelligentsia back in the Ming Dynasty, whose works pursued an artistic utopia and freedom."

Industry insiders are optimistic of the sales this season. The art market juggernaut in China is expected to roll on, luring more collectors from Asian countries such as Indonesia and South Korea in greater numbers.