Xu Beihong's Slave and Lion to be auctioned
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-23 19:49
Slave and Lion, a very rare work of Xu Beihong, a Chinese artist famous for
his paintings of horse, will be auctioned next month, Christie's Hong Kong said
Monday.
Christie's estimated the final price of the work may exceed 33 million HK
dollars (4.24 million U.S. dollars), the record set by Xu's another painting in
summer's auction.
According to the auction company, Slave and Lion is one of the very few so
far discovered that dates from the artist's early 1920 's, when he stayed in
Berlin.
The auction company believed the picture may draw much attention of
collectors because of the unique subject and Xu's realistic technique of
combining western sense of form and Chinese line of drawing.
The painting pictures a story of a slave and a lion in Roman Empire. The
slave who gave aid to a lion with a thorn in its paw later met the same lion in
the cruel game of human-animal battle in Roman amphitheater. The emperor moved
by the touching reunion and thus gave the slave his freedom.
Christie's said its 20th Century Chinese Art and Asian Contemporary Art
Auction to be held on November 26 will put around 400 pieces of art works under
the hammer, including Tiananmen Square, a very much favored picture by a
contemporary Chinese artist Zhang Xiaogang, whose picture is closely connected
with modern life and culture.
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