Dizhuming, a Chinese calligraphy masterpiece from the Song Dynasty has set a new bidding record at the Beijing Spring Auction. Let's examine the piece that brought in almost 436-million yuan.

390 million was the last record.

As the hammer dropped, the piece composed by Huang Tingjian dating back to the Song Dynasty set the highest bid in the history of auctioning Chinese artwork. The final price was 436.8 million yuan including the commission.

Auction Participant, said, 400 million was far beyond our expectation of 200 million.

Jiang Yingchun, Vice Manager of Auction, said, When the bidding price passed 200-million, I felt very relieved. Because I think Chinese calligraphy and paintings deserve this price. They used to be too low.

Dizhuming attracted a lot of attention at the Beijing Spring Auction. It was treated as the most important piece of work up for sale. The 15 meter work was once kept by a museum in Japan and only recently returned to China.