Zao Wou-Ki 'Juin-Octobre 1985' sets three auction records at US$65 million

Today, at Sotheby’s Modern Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong, Juin-Octobre 1985 by Zao Wou-Ki commanded the extraordinary price of HK$510,371,000 (US$65,245,829), establishing a world auction record for an oil painting by an Asian artist1 and doubling Zao Wou-Ki’s previous record of HK$203 million (US$26 million). With this result, the work is the most valuable painting sold by any auction house in Hong Kong. Measuring 10 metres long and 2.8 metres in height, Juin-Octobre 1985 was commissioned by celebrated architect I.M. Pei for the Raffles City in Singapore. The monumental and exceedingly rare triptych represents the stylistic hallmark of Zao Wou-Ki’s ‘Infinite Period’, exemplified by an open composition symbolising the artist’s liberated transcendence of mind and self. Zao-Wou-Ki is one of the very few Chinese Modern artists whose recognition has ascended to a global level. According to Artprice’s