Zhao Wuji broke 500 million yuan: is it a case or a new breakthrough ?

Hong Kong. On the evening of September 30, 2018, Sotheby's autumn auction ushered in two high tide late auctions. 49 items were sold at the modern art evening auction at 5:00 in the afternoon and more than 57 percent of the lots were sold at over-the-top prices. The total transaction volume was as high as HK $1.1093635 billion, with the largest transaction of HK $510.371 million in Zhao Wuji's oil painting "June to October 1985". This was followed by a gavel-lifting evening auction of 41 lots, with about 41 percent of the lots sold at the highest estimate, with a total transaction value of HK $455.593 million. Before the shooting, the much-watched "Xu Zhen supermarket" dropped its mallet with more than the highest estimate of HK $1.6 million, while the biggest "dark horse" in this scene was the heavy color silk cloth work "Shell" created by ink meticulous painter Hao Li from 2010 to 2011. It was valued at HK $3.2 million to HK $4.8 million and ended up with a hammer of HK $12 million, with a commission transaction price of HK $14.52 million.

                                     HK $510 million, Zhao Wuji without price ceiling. 

"June to October 1985", which sold for HK $510 million, was the largest oil painting ever created by Zhao Wuji. This huge triple screen mural is a special creation by the artist at the invitation of his friend and famous architect Pei Yuming for (Raffles City), Raffles City, Singapore at that time. In the 40 years from 1966 to 2006, Zhao Wuji created 20 triplets, of which 3 were collected by the museum, 7 by the Zhao Wuji Foundation, and 10 in the private collection.

                                                       June to October 1985. 

                                                                    1985. 

                                                    Valuation pending inquiry. 

                                        Transaction price: HK $510.371 million. 

This is the auction of Zhao Wuji's largest work, Sotheby's made great efforts to create momentum before the auction. On Sept. 7, Sotheby's Asian CEO Cheng Shoukang posted a photo of Zhao Wuji on his Instagram account with the caption "Size Matters" (size is very important). Supplemented by several labels such as "invincible", "biggest and best" (maximum and best), "autumn" (autumn), suggesting that Sotheby's autumn shoot will present the largest Zhao Wuji painting. 

"June to October 1985", 2.8m high and 10m long, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong in 2005 with an estimated value of HK $16 million to HK $20 million. It was won by Taiwanese collector Chang Chiu-dun for HK $16 million. 13 years after the auction again, unexpectedly achieved the original 28 times the transaction price, although the current Zhao Wuji market is positive, this is still an amazing result. In the late auction of Sotheby's Modern Art, the work was sold at HK $300m, starting from HK $300m, and was sold at HK $510.371 million, which far exceeded Sotheby's pre-auction estimate of HK $350 million. It set a new record for Zhao Wuji's world auction (the previous record was HK $202.6 million set by Christie's in Hong Kong in the autumn of 2017), the world auction record for Asian oil painting and the highest transaction in the history of the auction in Hong Kong.

Zhao Wuji, "29.01.64", 1964, valued at HK $85 million to HK $125 million, scored a record-breaking transaction price of HK $202.6 million in 2017 at Christie's in Hong Kong. 
Is < p > 510 million a rational number? From close to selling in 2005 to sky-high prices in 2018, Zhao Wuji's market may have peaked in recent years. Briefly enumerate a few data: in the past three years, 10 auction houses have sold more than 200 works by Zhao Wuji and five works for hundreds of millions of dollars, except for the latest HK $510 million "June to October 1985." The creation time of the other hundreds of millions of works was all concentrated in the fifties and sixties of the last century. In the 2018 spring auction in Hong Kong, in addition to the highest price for Sotheby's in Hong Kong, the Ming Xuande imperial system, the Great Prajna Boromita Sutra, was HK $238.8075 million. The most expensive items from Christie's, Poly Hong Kong, Fuyi and China Jiade are all Zhao Wuji's paintings.