Paintings produced by several late Vietnamese painters will be put up for auction in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-January.

Lythi Auction, a Ho Chi Minh City-based auction house, plans to put as many as 26 paintings under the hammer at the “Vietnam 20th century and contemporary art” auction scheduled for January 13 at the Museum of Vietnamese History.

Many of Vietnam’s heavy hitters in the art world from the past century will have pieces up for grabs, including Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam, and Bui Xuan Phai.

Le Pho (1907-2001) was first discovered by American art gallerist Wally Findlay in the 1960s and two of the world’s most prestigious auction houses, Christie’s and Sotheby’s, have continuously auction off his paintings since.

Pho’s Family Life (Doi Song Gia Dinh), an ink and gouche panting on silk canvas, sold for US$1.2 million at an auction in Hong Kong in 2017, making it the most expensive Vietnamese painting ever sold.

Painting The Art of the Bouquet by Le Pho

Bidding for Pho’s 1958 piece The Art of the Bouquet at the Ho Chi Minh City auction this month will start at $70,000 and the final price is estimated to top out at $100,000.

Vu Cao Dam (1908-2000), one of Pho’s contemporaries, was also discovered by Findlay after several exhibitions across Europe. 

Two of his paintings, both named Le Poète, will be up for auction at the event. 

The two oil-on-canvas paintings were produced six years apart, in 1978 and 1984, and will start at $35,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Bui Xuan Phai (1921-1988), an artist known for his paintings about Hanoi’s Old Quarter, will have an oil-on-canvas painting, Portrait of Ngoc Dinh Drama Artist, up for auction with a starting bid of $35,000.

Below are some works that will come under the hammer at the upcoming Lythi auction:

Painting Le Poète signed and dated 1978 by Vu Cao Dam

Painting Canh nong thon (Countryside ) by Hoang Hong Cam

Painting Chan dung nghe si kich Ngoc Dinh (Portrait of Ngoc Dinh Drama Artist) by Bui Xuan Phai

A portrait statue by Bui Giang and Pham Cung

Painting Mua hoa (Flower rain) by Nguyen The Hung

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