NEW YORK, N.Y.- This morning’s auction at Sotheby’s New York of Classical Chinese Paintings, the company’s first dedicated sale in this field for more than a decade, realized the superb total of $6,467,000 (est. $2.6/3.7 million). The auction, which saw more than 87% of the sold lots achieve sums in excess of their pre-sale estimates, established a strong sell-through rate of 88% by lot. The sale was led by Running Script Transcription of an Epitaph, written for Minister Chen Xinyi by Dong Qichang (1555-1636) who is known as the most influential artist of his time. The painting sold for $782,500 (est. $200/300,000). Discussing the results, Iris Miao, Head of the Classical Chinese Paintings sale at Sotheby’s New York, said: “We are delighted with the performance of this morning’s sale which represented the first dedicated auction of Classical Chinese Paintings at Sotheby’s in New York for over