On Indonesia’s fires, El Nino’s impact on the power sector, and other stories | Asia Sentinel Stories of the Week 
WATCH: Inside the China Capital investigation — a live panel 
El Niño changes Southeast Asia’s power sector trajectory 
Christie’s auctioneer Rupert Banner leans forward with practised showmanship as bidding stalls on a rare Yongzheng bowl near New York’s iconic Rockefeller Centre. He pauses as if willing offers from thin air, scanning dozens of in-person buyers and phone banks connecting with China, London, Texas.
It will be a bad look if the frenzy abates for this delicate peach-decorated bowl highlighted on Christie’s glossy Chinese sale catalogue and online advertising. But bidding soon resumes with a realised price of US$2.05 million, the sale’s top porcelain result.
The bowl is among over 100 items from the Art Institute of Chicago, part of a broader generational transition as rarefied relics amassed by 19th century American Gilded Age “robber barons” return to Chinese hands after gathering dust for more than a century in Western museums.
Then it is the turn of lot 1032, an archaistic zun-form vase once owned by finance magnate Charles Schwab. “They’re off and running,” says Banner, before a Chinese man snags it for US$40,960.
Don't Miss:
-
China and Africa boost law enforcement ties in crackdown on cross-border cybercrime
-
Baby bonuses fail to address the fear of falling behind
-
Tennessee prisons chief resigning after botched execution of Christa Pike
-
Probe launched into luxury One Stanley project over alleged steel bar shortage
-
Five Bodies Dumped in Tlalnepantla, Morelos