Spring Silkworm painting fetches $7m at auction

Luo Zhongli's oil painting Spring Silkworm, a work that expresses his deep feelings for mother, fetched 43.7 million yuan ($7 million), a new record for the artist, at a Beijing sale on Sunday night.

Painted in 1983, the work portrays an elder woman who lowers her head and feeds silkworms. It is considered a sequel to Luo's signature work Father, painted in 1980 and now part of a permanent collection of the National Art Museum of China.

In Spring Silkworm, Luo made delicate sketches of the mother's hair — bright and silver like that of silk — at the center of the painting, which form a strong contrast with the dark-colored and rough skin of her arms.

The painting was sold at the Poly International Auction's spring sale. Other works for sale were painted by Luo's alumnus at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, such as Pang Maokun, Cheng Conglin and He Duoling, as well as Ai Xuan, who didn't attend the academy but spent long time in Sichuan's Tibetan areas painting his iconic works.

Founded by the Taiwan art collector Lin Ming-che, the foundation is committed to promoting and collecting Chinese contemporary art. It established the Luo Zhongli Scholarship for Oil Painting to nurture China's art talent.