Beijing Council kicked off its first summer art auction this week, joining forces in competition for the ever-hot late summer sales.

More than 2,600 pieces of artworks will be going under the hammer before Sunday, including Chinese paintings, porcelains, oil paintings and prints.

Highlights feature ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphy from a Japanese private collection, as well as a contemporary calligraphy sale.

Aside from ancient pieces, such as pieces by Chinese masters like Shen Zhou (1427-1509), Zhu Yunming (1460-1527) and Bada Shanren (1626-1705), all of whose works very rarely appear at auction, modern art masters such as the late Qi Baishi – now the third most valuable modern artist on the planet – and Zhang Daqian will also go on sale.

Particularly worthy of notice is the contemporary calligraphy sale, which offers more than 100 contemporary pieces, with prices ranging from several thousand to tens of thousand of yuan.

Beijing Council president and general manager Dong Guoqiang told the Global Times that he is offering the first calligraphy feature, in the hope of more people paying attention to the ancient genre’s situation in modern times.

“Ancient calligraphy has been hotly pursued in recent years but few are interested in pieces created by contemporary calligraphers," Dong said. “As a representative of Chinese culture and spirit, it needs more care from both the market and ordinary audiences."

One of China’s first-class art auction houses, Beijing Council is among the few joining the “summer sales", as spring and autumn are generally the two main seasons for art sales.

With the market increasing in value, more and more auction houses are targeting summer as a “special" sale season, and many collectors view this as an opportunity to buy “high-quality works without an extremely expensive price," according to Dong.

Previews for the auction are being held at the Beijing Asia Hotel.