November 28, 2006: A Christie's Hong Kong auction of fine Chinese ceramics and art yielded the world auction record for a Qing porcelain, with an imperial famille rose “swallows” bowl going for US$19.7 million – the highest price ever achieved for a work of art at auction in Asia. This important treasure of the Qianlong period in the late 18th century was joined in the world record books by an exceptional white jade libation cup of the same era, which fetched an extraordinary US$1.47 million after spirited bidding.
In fact, the entire auction was a thorough success, with no less than six world auction records broken. The pieces came from the Robert Chang collection, as well as the collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, and helped make 2006 – the twentieth anniversary of Christie's Hong Kong – doubly successful compared to 2004 or 2005, with a total of US$113 million's worth of Chinese works sold.
