Chinese museums and billionaires and European museums competed earlier today in the bidding for the sculpture, which was consigned by a Swiss collector, says Michael Trautmann, the head of the Asian art department at Nagel Auktionen.
Unusually, an inscription on the sculpture gives an exact date of production during the realm of the Chenghua Emperor.
As a subscriber, you will also get live reports from leading art fairs and events, such as the Venice Biennale, plus special offers from The Art Newspaper.