Howard Farber intended to sell only 30 contemporary Chinese paintings when he consigned them to Phillips de Pury in June. However, when he heard that one of them—Zeng Fanzhi’s Hospital Series, 1994—had sold to collector Charles Saatchi he revisited his remaining stock. Saatchi purchased the work for £860,000 ($1.7m), way above its estimate of £200,000-£300,000, and Mr Farber made around $6m in total from the sale.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Saatchi purchase makes collector think again'