 18th century Chinese moon flask sells for 4.1 million euros Montbazon, France (AFP) June 10, 2018 - A rare porcelain moon flask that belonged to the 18th century Chinese Emperor Qianlong has been sold for 4.1 million euros ($4.8 million) after a bidding war at an auction in France. The blue, white and celadon flask -- more than 200-years-old -- was bought by a French woman who outbid 17 Chinese buyers during a sale that lasted about ten-minutes, according to auctioneers who described the buy as "historic and legendary". The final sale including fees totalled more than 5 million euros -- ten times the auction's opening price of 500,000 euros. Emperor Qianlong, one of the longest serving Chinese emperors who ruled for much of the 18th Century, was an avid art collector. The round-shaped moon flask has eight Buddhist symbols in stylised lotus petals and bears the seal of the emperor. It was discovered by chance in April in a French castle during a valuation of antiques and its original owners remain anonymous. The buyer, who bid over the phone during the auction at Artigny chateau in Montbazon, central France, s expected to keep the flask at her apartment in Paris but it could potentially be loaned to a museum in future, the auctioneer said. According to the auctioneer Philippe Rouillac, the flask was probably brought back from China by a French navy officer. Far East art specialist Alice Jossaume said the flask is one of two flasks from Emperor Qianlong that exist. The other flask was sold for 1.8 million euros at Sotheby's in Hong Kong in 2016.
Chinese 'Pulp Fiction' finally shown at top film festival Crime drama "Have a Nice Day" -- a panorama of the ills caused by the pursuit of money in modern China -- was cold shouldered out of the Annecy film festival in eastern France last year. The festival -- which was celebrating Chinese animation with a slew of other films -- bowed to pressure from Beijing and decided to drop the film from the line-up. "It became impossible to have both the film and the presence of Chinese officials," Annecy's director Marcel Jean told AFP. He said "Have a Nice Day" was only a political film "because of its realism, which shows a reality that the Chinese authorities do not want highlighted". The film has been acclaimed, with the IndieWire website comparing it to "Pulp Fiction". "Mixing the dreaminess of Wong Kar-wai with early Tarantino vibes, it repurposes these precedents in an exciting new context," it said. The movie, directed by artist Liu Jian, got a limited showing in China and will be released in France later this month by producer Julie Gayet, the partner of former French president Francois Hollande. She said Liu has a "slightly critical view of the way Chinese capitalism has developed" and wanted to show how ordinary people have been touched by this. The director, who did not attend the festival, said earlier that he was "fascinated by the all the changes we have had in China and by men whose lives have been shaken by them."
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An 18th-century Chinese vase forgotten for decades in a shoe box in a French attic sold for 16.2 million euros ($19 million) at Sotheby's in Paris on Tuesday -- more than 30 times the estimate.
Experts at the auction house said the exquisite porcelain vessel was made for the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong and had set a guide price of a much more modest 500,000 euros.
"This is a major work of art, it is as if we had just discovered a Caravaggio," Olivier Valmier, the Asian arts expert at the auction house, told reporters before the sale.
The vase, which was in perfect condition, "is the only known example in the world bearing such detail," he added.
Rare porcelain from the Qian period has been going for astronomical prices recently. A bowl made for Qianlong's grandfather sold last April by Sotheby's in Hong Kong went for $30.4 million dollars.
The vase -- which is decorated with idealised images of deer and cranes from the imperial summer hunting grounds at Mulan in northern China -- was found by chance among dozens of other pieces of Chinoiserie in the attic of a house in France earlier this year.
- 'We didn't like it much' -
The family -- from near Paris -- had acquired it at the end of the 19th century but it lay unloved in a shoe box in the attic for decades.
"We didn't like the vase too much, and my grandparents didn't like it either," said the owner of the piece, who only got in touch with Sotheby's in March.
It was still in the shoe box when it was presented to Sotheby's experts for authentification.
The staggering price paid by a young Chinese collector, who was at the auction himself, is the highest ever recorded by the auction house in Paris.
The man, who was wearing a jogging top, beat off bids from other Chinese collectors, mostly over the phone.
The collector, who has has not been named, also did the bidding himself -- a rarity at this level of auction.
The polychrome vase with its idyllic landscape of mist-topped mountains and pine trees also carries a six-character "reign mark" on its base.
The only other "yancai ruyi" vase that has so far come to light is in the Guimet museum of Asiatic arts in Paris, though it does not have the cranes.
- 'Exceedingly rare' -
Only four similar pieces have been documented as coming from the imperial workshops in Jingdezhen, the southern Chinese city known as the "Porcelain Capital".
In 1765 a pair were made for the Buddha pavilions in the Emperor Qianlong's private apartments. Four year later, two more were ordered as a present for his birthday.
The Qing dynasty, China's last imperial family, reached its apogee under Qianlong and originally came from Manchuria, the region depicted on the vase.
"Such elaborate and challenging designs are exceedingly rare on Qing imperial porcelain," said Sotheby's.
Experts believe that the vase was bought in France because it was found with a Japanese parfume burner which still had its receipt from the Exposition Universelle world fair in Paris in 1867.
The animals and plants on the vase are all highly symbolic. The deer is a marker of happiness and prosperity, cranes represent age, the pines eternal life, and the lingzhi mushroom immortality.
However, the Qing masterpieces also show much Western influence with their makers having taken on methods and colours -- particularly the pinks -- learned from the Dutch and from Jesuit missionaries.
An imperial stamp used by Qianlong set a new world record when in was sold for 21 millions euros in Paris in 2016.
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