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HONG KONG (REUTERS).- Sales of traditional Chinese paintings and old masters notched up firm results at Christie’s autumn sales in Hong Kong, outshining Chinese contemporary art. Christie’s, hit by anemic spring sales due to the financial crisis, had been banking on the current autumn sales in Hong Kong, now the firm’s third biggest arts hub after New York and London, for a reversal of fortunes. In the fine Chinese modern paintings sale, 84 percent of lots were sold including a world auction record for Chinese artist Fu Baoshi, whose “Landscape inspired by Dufu Poetic Sentiment” was hammered off for HK$60 million ($7.7 million), a price market experts said was around four times higher than its 2006 price. “The market has been quite good,” said Hangzhou based Chinese dealer and collector Tao Xiaomin, who was bidding at the sales. “In the first half of the year, (traditional) Chinese paintings have experienced a boom and records

LONDON.- From a busy saleroom opened to capacity, with two banks of 60 telephone lines reserved to execute bids on behalf of potential buyers, clients enthusiastically competed to acquire a piece of Russian Imperial history in Sotheby’s Sale of ‘Romanov Heirlooms: The Lost Inheritance of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna’. The auction, which saw every lot contested by several bidders, exceeded all pre-sale expectations (estimate: £600,000-900,000) and brought the outstanding total of £7,073,300/$11,658,920. With every lot sold, the auction achieved the status of

LONDON.- Sotheby’s sale of Old Master Sculpture and Works Of Art in London on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 will open with an unusual collection of stone architectural carvings brought together over a period of 17 years by collector and enthusiast Richard Wiseman. Depicting demons, men and fantastic beasts, these carvings – including a group of gargoyles – were made to adorn churches and civic buildings in the medieval period. Together they represent the largest