Hong Kong - Cleaners are suspected of mistaking a Cui Ruzhuo painting for rubbish and dumping the work, which has gone missing after it was sold for $HK28.75 million (S$4.6 million) by Poly Auction, says Sing Tao Daily.
Poly Auction staff could not find the Chinese ink painting Snowy Mountain at a Grand Hyatt ballroom yesterday, after the auction on Monday, and police suspected that the painting had been placed on the floor, and someone on patrol mistakenly kicked it next to a heap of garbage nearby, says the report. The painting might then have been removed by cleaners, and transferred to a landfill in the New Territories.
Police officers rushed to the landfill yesterday night, but did not find the painting, says the report.
Another painting by Cui set a new auction record for a contemporary Chinese work on Monday. Landscape In Snow sold for HK$184 million.