Chen Yifei's oil painting Cello and Girl sold to an anonymous bidder for 5.5 million yuan (US$662,651) at an auction in the city yesterday, setting a record price for one of his works.

Chen Yifei died at 59 of liver disease caused by fatigue in April.
  
One of Chen's ceramic paintings also sold for 14,300 yuan and one of his silk screen prints went for 63,000 yuan.

But a painting of a southern canal town in China went unsold when no one offered the floor price of 2 million yuan.

"The result truly reflects the artworks of Chen Yifei," said Ji Chongjian, the owner of Chongyuan Auction House.

"Those paintings that were stamped strongly with his personal style sold well, such as the female musicians and the Chinese women of the 1930s, but not those commonly found subjects repeated by other artists."

Chen, the 59-year-old Shanghai tycoon and artist died from liver failure in April.

But his sudden death and dramatic life immediately boosted the prices of his paintings.

In May, one of Chen's paintings sold for nearly 4.4 million yuan at an auction in Beijing.

"I believe there is great potential for the prices of Chen's paintings to rise in the future, as he didn't leave many paintings," said one bidder at the auction yesterday.

Born in Zhenhai in neighboring Zhejiang Province, Chen achieved fame as a painter while still a young man through a series of oil paintings depicting historical events.

In the early 1980s, Chen, like many of his peers, moved to the United States to study.

It didn't take long before the paintings of the poor Chinese student attracted public attention and he was contracted to a top gallery in New York.

However, ahead of others, Chen realized that China would become a hot spot in the art world in the following years and he came back home to develop his "visual empire."

His business expanded and diversified until it included a modeling agency, a costume design house, a publishing venture, an environmental design business, restaurant and filmmaking.

"Chen's death was a catalyst for the market in Chinese oils," said Ji.

More than 60 oil paintings by Chinese artists were sold at yesterday's auction, bringing in 25 million yuan.

(Shanghai Daily June 30, 2005)