Song dynasty bowl shatters world record for Chinese ceramics, fetches $37.7 million in Hong Kong sale

Nicholas Chow, Deputy Chairman for Sotheby's Asia and the International Head and Chairman of the Chinese Works of Art department, poses with a rare Ru Guanyao brush washer, after it sold for $37.7 million during an auction in Hong Kong, China October 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A nearly 900-year-old porcelain Song dynasty bowl smashed the world auction record for Chinese ceramics on Tuesday, selling for HK$294.3 million (£28.38 million) at a Sotheby's sale in Hong Kong.

The small, blue-green item broke the previous record, also set in a sale in Hong Kong, when a 500-year-old imperial "chicken" cup from the Ming dynasty Chenghua period sold for HK$281.2 million ($36.0 million) in 2014, Sotheby's said.