SINGAPORE – A six-panelled lacquer display from the final Vietnamese Emperor Bao Dai has bought for HK$9.7 million (S$1.7 million) at a Bonhams public sale in Hong Kong, setting a world file for the artist at an public sale.
Golden Sundown Over Halong Bay, the work of the late lacquer grasp Pham Hau, went to an Asian personal collector on Saturday (Nov 27) on the Bonhams Southeast Asian Fashionable and Modern Artwork sale – promoting a number of occasions the estimate of HK$2.8 to three.8 million.
The work had travelled to Singapore earlier this month for an public sale preview.
At 1m tall and practically 2m large, it provides a panoramic view of the bay – a Unesco World Heritage web site – with intricate etchings of fishermen and fishing boats between islands of limestone.
Golden Sundown Over Halong Bay was granted to the late American journalist Edgar Ansel Mowrer when he met the emperor in 1951. Mowrer took it again to his household’s house and it was handed all the way down to his granddaughter.
Ms Bernadette Rankine, director of Bonhams Southeast Asia, stated in a press release: “This beautiful lacquer display by Pham Hau is a major discovery, not just for its royal provenance but in addition for its distinctive composition, supreme workmanship and rarity. It’s a true masterpiece, and we’re notably proud that it has set a brand new world file for a piece by Pham Hau.”
Final week’s 35-lot public sale concerned different notable gross sales of works by Vietnamese painters – Mai Trung Thu’s Woman Taking part in A Nguyet Cam, which bought for HK$7.8 million; and Le Pho’s Les Bleuets, which bought for HK$940,000.
