Security guards look after the Chinese oil on canvas painting "Slave and Lion"
© AFP Samantha SinHONG KONG (AFP) - The painting -- "Slave and Lion", painted in 1924 -- was the top lot on the first day of auction house Christie's four-day autumn sale of Asian art, jewellery and watches.
The sale, won by an anonymous phone bidder, far exceeded the item's reserve price of 32 million dollars Sunday.
"Slave and Lion" is based on an ancient Roman story and portrays a frightened man cowering in a cave from an approaching lion. It is the only painting by Xu still in private hands.
The Yixing, Jiangsu province-born Xu rose to fame following his travels through Europe, where he developed a style that combined Western and traditional Chinese methods.
By 1953, the year he died, he had become China's premier painter and was exhibited all over the world.
The Christie's sale brings together the largest collection of art to go under the hammer in an Asian auction, and the venerable house expects the works will fetch a total of 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, a record for Asia.
Increasingly wealthy Asians are becoming high-profile players in the booming global art market, and Hong Kong has rapidly established itself as the world's third most important art market, after New York and London.
Last week Hong Kong tycoon Joseph Lau paid 17.4 million dollars for Andy Warhol's pastiche of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, the highest amount ever paid for a Warhol piece.
©AFP