Chinese businesswoman Alice Cheng paid a record high price of HK$41.50 million (US$5.32 million) to buy a peach-patterned vase made in the Yongzheng period (1723-1735), thus setting a new auction record for porcelain from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The vase, sold at auction, is decorated with peach and bat pattern in famille-rose palette.

It had been consigned for sale by the Ogden R. Reid, chairman of the Council of American Ambassadors and third generation publisher and editor of the Herald Tribune. His mother, Helen Rodgers Reid, was also prominent in ambassadorial circles and the vase came from her house in New York.

"The extraordinary interest that we saw prior to the sale during viewing in America and Asia was born out by the stunning price fetched for this unique piece," commented Henry Howard-Sneyd, managing director of Sotheby's China and Southeast Asia.

"Prices rose at such a speed that many potential bidders never had a chance to raise their paddles. Chinese art is clearly a force to be reckoned with in the international art market," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2002)