Vietnamese Work First Valued at $75 Fetches Record $390,000

A painting that was initially valued at just 50 pounds ($75) sold for HK$3.03 million ($390,000) in a weekend auction by Christie’s International in Hong Kong, setting a record for a work by a Vietnamese artist.

When the British seller of the 1932 work by Nguyen Phan Chanh entitled “La Marchande de Riz” (The Rice Seller) took it to Christie’s in London, it was mistakenly identified by a trainee as a Chinese work because the artist signed his name in Chinese characters.