Article Excerpt
BY JASON CHOW
Inside a stuffy hotel ballroom in Beijing earlier this month, Zhao Xu was too anxious to remain in his seat as "Beijing 2008," a painting by Chinese artist Lui Liu, came up for sale.
Mr. Zhao, the 43-year-old head of China's Poly Auction, smoked cigarettes feverishly in the corner as bidding on the painting—one of the night's most anticipated works—opened at a sky-high 16 million yuan ($2.6 million). But in less than three minutes, Mr. Zhao could relax. The painting, which depicts five partly nude women at a mah-jongg game, sold for $2.7 million, proving that the Chinese art market ...
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