Oil painting Warm Spring in the Jade Pavilion by Chinese classic-style painter Chen Yifei (1946-2005) sold for 145 million yuan ($22 million) at a China Guardian auction in Beijing on Sunday.
The sale set a new record for the sale of one of Chen's "romantic realism" paintings. It also marks the first time that the auction house has sold a modern work of Chinese art for more than 100 million yuan.
Warm Spring in the Jade Pavilion is part of Chen's Old Dreams on the Sea series, which focuses on depicting the daily life of residents in old Shanghai and the exquisiteness of traditional Chinese culture.
Completed in 1993, the 170-centimeter-high by 244-centimeter-wide artwork was sold for nearly HK$ 2 million in Hong Kong that same year, a new record for a Chinese oil painting at the time.
The second and third highest-selling paintings in the modern Chinese art section of the auction were China Scenery by Zhou Chunya and Self-portrait by Liu Wei.
The former sold for 44 million yuan, while the latter went for 24 million yuan.
Eight lots were bid upon on Sunday night, with total sale reaching nearly 450 million yuan.
