THE CHEW FAMILY COLLECTION OF CHINESE PAINTINGS & CALLIGRAPHY
Sale Total: $13,281,150
The top lot of Asia Week across all auction houses in New York emerged from the Chew Family Collection, which doubled its pre-sale estimate and totaled $13.3 million. Zhang Daqian’s vibrant Water and Sky Gazing After Rain in Splashed Color, an enormous scroll painting that made its public debut this March with exhibitions in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, achieved $6.6 million. This excellent price, a result of over five bidders competing for five minutes, is the highest price for a work by Zhang Daqian outside of Asia.

FINE CLASSICAL CHINESE PAINTINGS & CALLIGRAPHY
Sale Total: $13,453,250
Sotheby’s New York’s seasonal offering of Fine Classical Chinese Paintings achieved $13.5 million, significantly above its high estimate of $10.1 million. The sale was led by Zhou Chen’s Walking Along the Willow Bank, an ink and color painting on silk from the Joe and Hellen Darion Collection. Estimated at $100/150,000, the work attracted over eight collectors online, in the room and on the telephones. Following a fifteen-minute bidding battle, the 14th/15th century painting sold to a private collector for a final price of $1.9 million to applause.