The "Fujita" sale during Christie's New York Asian Art Week reached new heights this year, 6 "Shiqu Baoji" handscrolls fetched US$124m in total. Among these 6 classical paintings, the bidding of "Six Dragons" (the picture below) was fiercest, and this cover lot has the opportunity to be the most expensive Chinese art in 2017.

The starting bid of Chen Rong's "Six Dragons" was US$1m, and the price quickly raised to US$10m. At the end, there were only two bidders in the race, a phone bidder whose representative was Rebecca Wei, Christie's Asia President, and a room bidder. The hammer price of "Six Dragons" was US$43.5m, which increased to US$49m with the buyer's premium.

This amount has surpassed the price of "Five Drunken Kings on Horses", the most expensive Chinese art in 2016. This handscroll by Yuan Dynasty official-painter Ren Renfa, was knocked down for RMB 303m in Beijing. The bidding atmosphere was still competitive afterward, the two following lots, Li Gonglin's "Treaty of Bianqiao" (the picture above) and Han Gan's "Horse" (the picture below), were sold for US$17.6m and US$17m respectively.

The forth handscolls, Wang Mian's "Snow Plum Blossoms" (the picture above) was sold for US$8.6m. Yet, the auction reached another climax for the fifth painting, Zhao Lingrang's "Willows and Geese" (the picture below) achieved an astonishing US$27m.

The last of these 6 lots, Zhao Mengfu's "Washing Horses" (the picture below) fetched US$4.5m. 

(prices include buyer's premium, unless otherwise stated)