Ancient Chinese bronze dish sells for US$27m at auction

Price is a record for Chinese antique art, according to media reports

The Xi Jia pan. Photo: Handout

A bronze Chinese dish about 2,000 years old has fetched a record price at auction, according to media reports.

The vessel dating from the Western Zhou dynasty (1046BC-771BC) was sold in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province on Saturday for 185 million yuan (US$27.3 million), according to the news website Cankaoxiaoxi.com.

The price set a new record for “Chinese antique art”, according to media reports.

Three people competed for the piece, including a local well-known art collector, the news website said.

Decorative markings on the rim of the piece. Photo: Handout

The collector won the auction, but said he was bidding on behalf of an unnamed friend.

The basin, the “Xi Jia pan”, was named after its owner, a high-ranking official during the Western Zhou dynasty. He was the main collector of China’s earliest known collections of poems the Book of Songs.

The dish has had several owners after it was passed down over the centuries.

China bans looted antiques from going under hammer at mainland auction houses

The bronze vessel is 47 cm in diameter and features a 133-character long inscription.

It is a national treasure as valuable as the “Mao Gong Ding”, the longest bronze inscription in the world cast inside a cauldron, the report said, citing historians.

The cauldron is kept at Taiwan’s National Palace Museum.

This article was first published by SCMP. Read the original article here: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2103263/ancient-chinese-bronze-dish-sells-us27m-auction