Christie's Hong Kong on Wednesday unveiled a two-day exhibition of impressionist and modern paintings in Hong Kong.

The exceptional array of art works will be offered at its Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York on May 4 to 5 and in London on June 22 and at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Hong Kong on April 14 to 15, said the company.

A total of 15 works by some of the greatest impressionist and modern masters including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Marc Chagall, and Fernand Lger, will feature the show.

"This is the first time that Christie's is exhibiting highlights from its New York and London Impressionist and Modern Art sales in Hong Kong. We are very delighted to be taking this step in a market that has become increasingly important to us," said Nicholas F. Maclean, Christie's international director and co-head of Impressionist and Modern Art.

The highlight of the June 22 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London is a highly decorative work by Marc Chagall, Le cirque au village, estimated at HK$9 million (US$1.15 million) to HK$12.7 million (US$1.63 million).

The signed and titled oil on canvas was painted in 1966 and is a superb example of his highly distinctive style with its sense of fairy-tale fantasy, that sprung from two rich sources of imagery, memories of Jewish life and folklore of his formative years in Russia and the bible.

Les deux femmes l'enfant, a superb work executed by Fernand Leger in 1919, will also be shown in the exhibition. The painting had recently been issued by Juan Gris and his fellow classical Cubists, urging avant-garde artists to seek a new rational humanism in their work as a means of overcoming the trauma of war.

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2004)