Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) -- An oil-on-board painting by deceased Chinese master Sanyu beat estimates by fetching HK$36.5 million ($4.7 million) at a Hong Kong auction where buyers paid top prices only for the best-known 20th-century Chinese artists.

Sanyu’s mid-1950s “Lotus et Poissons Rouges” (“Lotus and Red Fish”) was bought by a mainland Chinese bidding over the phone against five rivals, according to host Sotheby’s, which declined to identify the buyer. The auction house set its presale top estimate on the 116.8-by-179 centimeter artwork at HK$25 million. In May, Christie’s International sold a work by Sanyu for an artist record of HK$42.1 million.

The second-highest lot this morning was an oil-on-canvas, “7.4.61,” by Chinese abstract artist Zao Wou-ki (born 1921), which fetched HK$15.8 million, against a presale top estimate of HK$12 million. Of the 61 lots offered, 44 sold, netting a combined HK$109.2 million. Estimates don’t include commission.

“These prices are considered cheap for Chinese masters like Sanyu and Zao,” said Shanghai-based gallery-owner Hua Yuzhou, who paid HK$2.4 million for an oil-on-canvas by Wu Dayu (1903-1988). “Give it a few months and these pieces may run beyond our reach again.”

The dominance of mainland Chinese buying is more visible at this Sotheby’s auction than in previous art sales, accounting for the top lots in every category. Over the weekend, a Chinese buyer paid a record $94,000 for a 6-liter bottle of Chateau Petrus 1982. Another spent HK$7.3 million for a 1984 oil-and- color on paper by Li Keran at yesterday’s sale of classical Chinese paintings.

The auction continues today with Asian contemporary art, a category that set records in 2007 and has since fallen out of favor with collectors, who shifted to older pieces.

Sotheby’s buyers’ commission is 25 percent of the hammer price for the first HK$400,000; 20 percent for the amount between HK$400,001 and HK$8 million; and 12 percent for the amount above that.

To contact the reporter on the story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 6, 2009 02:44 EDT