A thangka, or Tibetan Buddhist tapestry, fetched HK$348 million (US$45 million) at an auction at Christie's in Hong Kong on Wednesday, according to a Global Times report.
The winning bidder was Beijing billionaire and art collector Liu Yiqian, whose winning bid is said to be a record for both this kind of Tibetan art and any Chinese artwork on an international auction.
The silk embroidery, 3.1 meters long and 2.3 meters wide, was made during the Ming Dynasty, when the Yongle Emperor ruled China from 1402 to 1424.
According to the auctioneer, thangka from this period are rare, with only three remaining in existence, the other two kept at Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.
Tsang Chi-fan, head of Christie's Chinese porcelain and artwork department, said that the "thangka has great artistic value," with its colors well-preserved and the craftsmanship "exquisite" as it marries silk of the highest quality from Hangzhou and topnotch work from Suzhou.
Liu's thangka was priced at HK$80 million, and when the tycoon won it, it was 10 times more expensive than when it was sold more than a decade ago.
The thangka was first auctioned in 1977 at a Christie's, after it went missing in the 1940s in the West. It was bought for 7,000 pounds by an Indian art collector.