LONDON.- The past year (2011) saw a series of art world records broken at Bonhams salerooms round the world. These include: Chinese Art, Bonhams Hong Kong set a new outright world record for a Chinese snuff bottle on 28 November 2011, at the auction of the celebrated Mary and George Bloch Collection: Part IV at the Island Shangri-La Hotel, Hong Kong. The tiny, yet exquisite, ‘famille-rose’ enamelled glass ‘European-subject’ snuff bottle made in the Imperial Palace workshops in Beijing during the Emperor Qianlong period (1736-1795) measures only 8.07cm high. International bidders in the packed auction room and on the telephone battled the bidding up to a final figure of HK$25.3 million (US$3,328,400; GBP2,108,333). It set a new world record for any Chinese snuff bottle, beating Bonhams own record, established only eighteen months ago. One of the highest prices achieved at auction for Chinese cera-