Guo’s “The Forbidden City,” an oil-on-canvas painting of the Beijing landmark executed in 1946, before the Communist Party took power, had a presale low estimate of HK$30 million, said the New York-based auction house. Guo’s painting was one of 46 modern Chinese works sold at the sale, which fetched a HK$96.4 million. A total of 57 lots were offered.

“Considering the market is quite slow, we are happy with the results,” said Evelyn Lin, head of Sotheby’s contemporary- Chinese-art department, in a phone interview.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale is among the first bellwethers of Asia’s art-auction market after an equity rout that triggered a 28 percent fall in China’s benchmark CSI 300 Index and a 23 percent drop in Indian stocks in the first quarter. More than in Europe and the U.S., Asia’s art market tends to track prevailing financial-market trends, said Cai Mingchao, who paid a record HK$117 million for a Ming Dynasty bronze Buddha in October 2006.

Guo (1901-1974), also known as Kuo Po-ch’uan, spent 12 years in Beijing, the most important phase of his artistic career, according to Sotheby’s. His works are influenced by Ryuzaburo Umehara, a student of Renoir. “The Forbidden City” shows the winged roof tiles of the palace in flaming red.

“Guo paintings aren’t representative of Chinese artworks, so we shouldn’t expect his works to fetch very high prices,” said Tian Kai, a dealer who flew in from Beijing for the sale.

Sotheby’s auction continues Wednesday with the sale of New York dealer William Acquavella’s Chinese contemporary-art collection, comprising 108 paintings, sculptures and photographs by leading artists such as Zhang Xiaogang and Ai Weiwei. The cache, called the Estella Collection, is valued at as much as $12 million.

The highlight of the Chinese contemporary-art sale is Liu Xiaodong’s “Battlefield Realism: the Eighteen Arhats,” comprising nine pairs of 2-meter-tall paintings, each juxtaposing a Taiwanese soldier with his mainland counterpart. The 2004 work, a commentary on China’s enmity with Taiwan, may fetch as much as HK$55 million, according to Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s estimates its four-day sale of Ming Dynasty gold, gems and Asian art will raise more than HK$1.3 billion. Estimates and prices include commissions.

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