Mai Trung Thu’s "Le Concert" (1978) achieved the highest price of the sale, hammered at nearly EUR 1.8 million and reaching EUR 1.811 million (around VND 57.8 billion) after taxes and fees. Painted in ink and gouache on silk and set in a lacquer frame crafted by the artist himself, the work depicts five young women symbolizing the pentatonic scale of traditional Vietnamese music.

A 1942 nude by Le Pho sold for about EUR 1.378 million (VND 44 billion), while one of his northern Vietnam landscapes, painted between 1930 and 1935, went for EUR 1.234 million (VND 39.4 billion).

The auction also featured pieces by Vu Cao Dam, Nguyen Trung, and Nguyen Tu Nghiem. A representative of a Vietnamese auction house noted that the results reaffirm the enduring appeal of Indochinese art, especially works on silk and lacquer.

At present, Le Pho and Mai Trung Thu are among the most highly valued Vietnamese painters. Both were among the first graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine. Le Pho was the first Vietnamese artist whose work surpassed the one-million-US$ mark. As a favored student of Professor Victor Tardieu, the school’s principal, he often accompanied him to France. Mai Trung Thu, meanwhile, is remembered as the most gifted painter of his class.

Vietnamese painting debuts at Sloane Street Auctions with GBP45,000 sale

VOV.VN - An oil painting titled Property of a Lady of Title by Vu Cao Dam, one of the most influential Vietnamese artists of the 20th century, fetched GBP45,000 (approx. VND1.55 billion) at Sloane Street Auctions in London on May 2.