Ink and colour scroll painting 'Sunrise at Mount Tai' by Li Keran – estimate SFr150,000-250,000 at Koller on June 2.
Li Keran was a long-time student of Qi Baishi and in later years served as vice chairman of the Chinese Artists Association and dean of the Institute of Chinese Painting.
He gave this 2ft 1in x 4ft 6in (62cm x 1.38m) painting to Lothar Bolz, a deputy prime minister of the GDR, during a four-month visit to Berlin in 1957.
Bolz and German Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl, accompanied by Xia Yan, the Chinese deputy minister of culture, and Li Keran, had visited Qi Baishi during a visit to China in December 1955.
The painting on offer in Zurich, which is inscribed and signed Keran, has three artist’s seals and one collector’s seal and is dated Berlin 1957, was acquired in 1970 by Jerg Haas, a collector from Wiesbaden.
Estimate SFr150,000-250,000.
