Chinese art nets record price

BEIJING – A collector has paid $3.75 million for a 1939 painting by a Chinese artist, setting a new record price for Chinese oil paintings, a news report said.

“Silly Old Man Moves a Mountain” by Xu Beihong was bought by a Chinese collector at an auction in Beijing, the China Daily newspaper said.

Newly rich Chinese collectors have rapidly bid up the price of Chinese antiquities and modern art in recent years.

Xu’s “Silly Old Man” depicts a Chinese folk tale about a man who devotes his life to digging away a mountain that blocks his access to the outside world. The story is often cited as an example of perseverance.

Xu painted the work while visiting Singapore, the China Daily said. He hid the painting in a well following the Japanese invasion in 1941 and later gave it to a local school headmaster. The work changed hands several times before being put up for sale in Beijing by a Taiwanese collector, the report said.