All-Star Assembly of Famous Paintings at Gianguan Inspires Fierce Bidding Wars; Gianguan Produces Staggeringly High Auction Price
March 23, 2015
ArtfixDaily
During the week ending March 22, 2015, the gobal art center of New York was teeming with auctions of jewelry, antiques, calligraphy, and paintings as Sotheby’s, Gianguan, Christie’s and others held their spring Asian art sales. Spectacular items vied for attention, drawing in crowds of investors and collectors. The international economic slump of recent years has strained business livelihood and development; as real estate, steel and other industries across the board flounder and lose revenue, business groups have turned to the art market en masse to invest, anticipating future appreciation.
Throughout, the artworks auctioned consisted almost exclusively of works by world-renowned masters, marking the first time in auction history in which works by so many major artists were gathered together. At the site of auction, the kaleidoscopic diversity of styles, modes, and aesthetics wowed viewers and sent buyers from all countries into a bidding frenzy. Of all of the works, however, one particular piece has been deemed supreme in both merit and value. It is “Ink Lotus-An utter chaos strewn with broken strokes: a peculiar sight, yet wondrously endowed with a soul-soothing charm” by the contemporary artist H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III.
According to Kwong Lum, Gianguan Auctions founder, when the appraiser first unfurled the scroll and saw the painting, he declared with astonishment: “Dorje Chang Buddha III has arrived” – a revealing sign of the extreme prestige of H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s paintings.
Paintings and calligraphy by H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III are difficult to come by, and even more difficult to acquire. All originals feature a three-dimensional fingerprint as authentication.
According to auction specialists, the International Art Museum of America has offered to purchase H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s sunflower and water lily oil paintings for over $1,000,000 per square foot, but has yet to acquire the paintings due to unsuccessful price negotiations.
H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s “Ink Lotus,” sold at Gianguan’s spring auctions on March 22nd, was the highest selling of all of the paintings sold at the spring auctions,surpassing multiple times that of works by renowned artists East and West, past and present.
The work of art trumped the selling price of all works by famed historical and contemporary masters sold at the spring auction, such as those of Shi Tao, Wu Changshuo, Yun Nantian, Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, Xu Beihong, Fu Baoshi, Pan Tianshou, Li Keran, Huang Binhong, Wu Guanzhong. It came in higher than the Five Dynasties’ Juran, the Southern Song Dynasty’s Su Hanchen, and the Ming/Qing Dynasty Wen Zhengming, and Zheng Banqiao.
Buyers from various countries launched a bidding war over H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s painting, which opened at US$10,500,000. After several intense rounds of paddle-raising among the final few bidders, an approximately sixty-year-old Caucasian from the United States finally beat out his competitors and fellow bidders (hailing from Paris and Southeast Asia), and won the painting at the hammer price of US$16,500,000.“Ink Lotus” is mounted, ink on paper, and ten square feet in size.
Other high-flying paintings were Zhang Daqian’s “Shen Shan Can Gu Si” auctioned for US$233,000; Pan Tianshou’s “Ting Yuan Wan Lai Qiu” auctioned for US$162,500; Wu Changshuo’s “Ju Shi” auctioned for US$370,000; Shi Tao’s “Shi Shu Hua San Jue” auctioned for US$3,946,000; and Zheng He’s calligraphy of Buddhist sutra auctioned for US$14,000,000.
H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is a world-class master artist, as well as the highest world leader of Buddhism—a title neither self-appointed nor unilaterally proclaimed by any individual religion or group. in 2012 the United States Senate unanimously voted to approve the resolution to honor H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s contribution to humanity, and conferred the title of His Holiness upon Dorje Chang Buddha III. H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is also the only Buddha in the world to have a Buddha Day, as proclaimed by the mayor of Washington D. C. on January 19th, 2011.
The USPS approved the issuance of a commemorative envelope in honor of H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III Day. H. H Dorje Chang Buddha III has also received countless awards, including the World Peace Prize, the Presidential Gold Medal, the Congressional Republican Gold Medal, the International Leader Award, and the Martin Luther King Award, among others.
H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is also a Fellow of Britain’s Royal Academy of Arts, and the only Fellow appointed in the Academy’s two hundred year history. The fellowship was awarded by the Academy’s President Phillip King, at a ceremony in the British Embassy in Washington.
Experts predict that H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III’s paintings will become increasingly valuable and unattainable gems with the prestige of national treasures, since H. H. Dorje Chang Buddha III is focusing solely on Buddhist activities, and will no longer pursue painting.
