In previous auctions this year, there is trend that Chinese art is slowly returned to the homeland's collectors:

The March sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York revealed an extraordinary rise in prices in virtually every category from the bronzes of ancient China to the porcelain wares of the early 20th century.

The fervor began with bronzes of ancient China, which aroused huge admiration among sophisticated Western collectors between the two world wars, surfacing in large numbers following railway construction in Central China. Tai, who shared this admiration, also bought many of them. While collecting ancient bronzes started in China centuries before it did in the West, opening up tombs was taboo and until the late 20th century, Chinese connoisseurs stayed away from bronzes extracted by commercial looters. Attitudes first changed in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In the last few years, buyers from Mainland China have followed suit. Originally perceived as condoning the desecration of ancestral funerary abodes, buying the buried bronzes now amounts to an act of national recovery of stolen goods. The closer they are to works in Western hands, the greater the urge to return them to the mother country.

The first spectacular outburst at Sotheby’s was triggered by a Shang tripod vessel of the 12th century B.C. engraved with a marvelous taotie mask that compares with another in the Sackler Gallery. While the stylization of the mythical animal’s face is admirable, the surface patina is not. The $40,000 to $60,000 estimate seemed generous. Chinese bidders sent it climbing to $278,500.

Another vessel, cast in the 11th century B.C. also compared with a Sackler Gallery piece. The model is not rare and the quality of the bronze is poor. Estimated at $20,000 to $30,000, it surprisingly climbed to $170,500. The story repeated itself several times over utterly indifferent pieces. Chinese bidders acted as if they had been followers of a sect determined to gather the relics of a revered leader.

Frenzied bidding was not confined to ancient bronzes. A yellow glass vase thought to be worth $10,000 to $15,000 went up to $158,500. A Qianlong seal mark indicates that it was commissioned for the imperial palace and Christie’s had not taken into account the obsession of the new bidders with all things imperial. This obsession, which in the past was linked to personal status-seeking, is becoming an expression of patriotism because the palace symbolizes the glory of Chinese culture.

A second sale on March 23 at Sotheby’s revealed another side to the current upheaval in the market for Chinese art. It began with a collection of Song ceramics evidently built up by an investor in recent years. Some of the best works could be traced back to early Western collections. In 1952 the Boston-based dealer Georges de Batz had acquired the ultimate masterpiece in the group — a 12th-century celadon bowl made under the Southern Song Dynasty. The splendid piece carried a $30,000 to $50,000 estimate and brought $122,500.

Japanese provenance made a rare Northern Song dish irresistible. Carved with stylized peonies on the ivory slip under a colorless glaze, it had been exhibited in 1987 at the Toguri Museum of Art as part of a Tokyo private collection. Fitted with the pewter rim that most of the Ding porcelains excavated between the two world wars retain, the fine 11th-century vessel rose to $866,500, far above the high estimate.

The other great masterpiece in the Song collection sale was a high-shouldered vase with a short neck of the meiping type. An admirable clear-cut peony pattern in blackish brown is carved on the ivory-colored slip. While its vigorous thrust would have appealed to the Japanese collectors who dominated the market in the 1960s and the ’70s, the boldness of the large-size motifs does not fit Song aesthetics as beloved in China. Yet the vase more than doubled expectations at $506,500.

Scholars now think that this particular category of bowls, which are characterized by numbered ideograms molded on the underside, was destined for imperial use — several numbered Jun vessels are preserved in the National Palace Museum of Taipei and the Palace Museum in Beijing.

A pair of white jade bowls assigned to the 18th century and expected by Sotheby’s to be knocked down between $20,000 and $30,000 made $194,500. Ten lots down, the Chinese bidders went berserk. A white jade vessel and cover in a Revivalist style inspired by 12th-century B.C. Shang bronzes was inscribed with a poem by Qianlong and a date corresponding to 1776. It looked so much like a parody that it was hard to believe that it might be of considerable age. Sotheby’s experts gave it a $70,000 to $90,000 estimate, which seemed ambitious. But they were too timid. The spoofy jade brought a stupendous $1.65 million.

Another extravagant score followed later in the sale when a pair of huanghuali wood armchairs that were given a 17th-century date came up. An American consignor had acquired these in Hong Kong from Peter Lai Antiques. The estimate was $200,000 to $300,000. They inexplicably fetched $2.77 million.