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Autumn Art Auction Season in Full Swing

By Wu Ziru

Beijing Council International Auction House will hold its autumn auctions from Saturday to Monday, with more than 1,400 pieces of rare works ranging from calligraphy and Chinese paintings to sculptures, oil paintings and antiques going under the hammer at Beijing International Hotel.

The auction house revealed Thursday that among the highlights will be three calligraphic works by renowned calligrapher Wang Duo (1592-1652), who lived during the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties and was a master at running script xingcao, (a style of grass script).

The three pieces, two hand-scrolls of his own poems and one imitation of a piece of work by calligraphy master Wang Xianzhi of the East Jin Dynasty (317-420), are Wang's representative works among the few that have survived until today and are from a Japanese collector, according to Dong Guoqiang, president of the auction house.

Dong said that because classic calligraphy works have been hotly pursued on the market in recent years and Wang's works have long been appreciated and mainly collected by individuals in Japan and Singapore, he and his colleagues are optimistic toward the auction results, adding that the pieces have rarely been seen on the domestic art market before.

Several paintings by modern artists Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) and Qi Baishi (1864-1957), will also be part of the sales. The artists' works have been enthusiastically purchased by collectors in recent years, second only to ancient classic paintings and calligraphy.

The auction house said that aside from calligraphy and painting highlights, a large number of antiques will be part of the auction, with several different sales to be held within the three days.

A feature sale for the guqin (Chinese zither) will be held, presenting 10 precious guqin from collector Hu Ruosi (1916-2004) who dedicated his life to collecting the instrument.

An open preview will be held at Beijing International Hotel from Wednesday to Friday.

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