An art ware, which is a 1: 38 miniature of the recovered European buildings and fountains in the imperial garden Yuanmingyuan in Beijing, will be auctioned on Oct. 30 in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

With an opening price of 80 million yuan (about US$9.6 million), the art work embodies five-year laboring of more than 80 Chinese skillful craftsmen, according to Fu Zhenyang, general manager with the bidding company under the China Arts and Crafts Association, the organizer and sponsor of the auction.

Designed and crafted by the studio of late Chinese painting maestro Guan Shanyue (1912-2001) in the 1980s, the artwork is made of more than 60 kilograms of Swiss gold with more than 4,300 gems embedded on it. And about 160 kilograms of precious jade serves as its framework.

The work has once been put on exhibition for one year in the Yuanmingyuan in Beijing's west suburbs in 2003. Its market value is estimated to be over 100 million yuan (US$12 million), Fu said.

Yuanmingyuan, the emperor's private pleasure garden, was founded in the early 18th century and was once known as "Versailles of the East." In 1860, it was burned down by the British and French infantry.

The European buildings and fountains were at the Changchunyuan, one of the imperial gardens in Yuanmingyuan, and the ruins here are the best preserved relics in the imperial garden.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2005)