Christie’s Hong Kong sells Yu Chengyao painting donated to Khyentse Foundation. An anonymous donor recently enlisted Christie’s Hong Kong to auction one of his prized paintings and offered all proceeds of the sale to Khyentse Foundation. “The needs of Khyentse Foundation were many and my personal enjoyment of the painting had become an attachment,” he said.

The donor explained that he hoped the sale would help establish a fund to enable Buddhist scholars and monks to take residence at major universities in the west. A global fund raising campaign is currently underway for this project and the concept has received favorable response from the universities that have been approached.

Here is how the donor, who had owned the landscape painting by Yu Chengyao for more than 20 years, described it: “Yu’s approach to traditional Chinese san sui, (mountain/water) landscapes bordered on being almost Cubist without totally losing three dimensionality, quite unprecedented in Chinese scroll paintings. I liked it because the bright green colors were welcoming and soothing.”

“We are very thankful to this donor,” said KF Executive Director, Cangioli Che. “When patrons take the initiative like this it shows creativity, thoughtfulness, and obviously great generosity. I would like to encourage art collectors in the sangha to consider supporting Khyentse Foundation in the same way.”