Vladimir Tretchikoff'_ Chinese Girl

Kitsch masterpiece, Vladimir Tretchikoff's Chinese Girl, gains record price at Bonhams auction

 

• March 21, 2013

A gallery assistant at Bonhams looks at "Chinese Girl" by Vladimir Tretchikoff before the auction in London.

A PICTURE dubbed the most reproduced fine art print in the world has sold at auction in London for almost $A1.47 million, a record for South African artist Vladimir Tretchikoff.
 

Chinese Girl was bought by the chairman of Graff Diamonds International, Laurence Graff, for STG982,050 ($A1.44 million), Bonhams auctioneers said.
"It's a new world record for Tretchikoff," a Russian emigre who settled in South Africa, said Bonhams head of communications and marketing Julian Roup.

Mr Graff, a British jeweller, will put the iconic painting on public display with the rest of his collection of South African art at the Delaire Graff Estate at Stellenbosch outside Cape Town.
 "The picture is going home to Cape Town, where Tretchikoff painted it. It's rather wonderful," Mr Roup said.
Chinese Girl is a simple charcoal drawing on a brown canvas illuminated by an iridescent green-blue face, luscious black hair and bright golden tunic.

Bonhams said it was widely believed to be the most reproduced fine art print, noting Tretchikoff himself claimed to have sold half a million large-format reproductions by the end of his career