The total sale of a large-scale art auction, which concluded Sunday evening in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, hit 256 million yuan (US$32 million), breaking the art auction record in the province, according to the auction organizer.

About 85 percent of the 1,433 pieces at the auction were sold out at the two-day event, said Hu Xilin, an official with the Hangzhou-based Xiling Seal-Engraving Society Auction Co. Ltd., the event's organizer.

Xiling hosted its first art auction in July, with 1,183 pieces sold and a sales volume of 196 million yuan (US$24 million).

At the Sunday auction, an ancient silk hand scroll, dating back to the North Song Dynasty (960-1127), fetched 7.48 million yuan (US$935,000), the highest price in the auction. The colored ink piece is a combination of figure and calligraphy depicting a Buddhist tale.

Founded in December 2004, the Xiling auction firm is a subsidiary of the centennial-old Xiling Seal-Engraving Society, a famous Hangzhou-based academic group that specializes in seal-engraving, a traditional Chinese art.

Double-digit economic growth in China has fuelled a thriving auction market. The country now has more than 100 million individual collectors.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2005)