A rare Chinese cup that dates back to the 1400s has set the record for the highest price of a Chinese work of art at auction. The cup went for an astonishing HK$281 million, or $36 million, at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on Tuesday.
The cup is from the Chengua era, which lasted from 1465 to 1487, and is known as a “chicken cup.” Sotheby’s Asia Chief Executive Officer Kevin Ching put in the winning bid for a telephone bidder, reports Bloomberg. A round of applause followed the news that it set a record.
“Every time a chicken cup comes up on the market, it totally redefines prices in the field of Chinese art,” Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Asia told Reuters. The cups are comparable to the jewelled Faberge eggs of Tsarist Russia for collectors and are some of the most sought-after examples of Chinese art.
“This is the holy grail of ceramics,” dealer James Hennessy told Bloomberg. “People, emperors and collectors have always aspired to own one of these, and the opportunity doesn’t come along often.”
There are 16 Chenghua chicken cups that have survived with most in museums. Four are owned by private collectors. The cup auctioned off this week was the first one to hit the auction block since 1999, when a cup went for HK$29 million.