The 42-armed Thousand-armed Guanyin jade ornament is worth US$ 600 million. The carving process is so spectacular!

The 42-armed Thousand-armed Guanyin jade ornament that I am going to share with you at the jade auction today was sold at a special auction of works held in Kunming. This work was created by a famous jade carving master from Taiwan, and was then bought at the auction by a Mr. An for RMB 230 million. This incident attracted the attention of the entire jade circle. Here, the editor found the process of the master sculptor carving this work, let’s take a look.

The work is so eye-catching, in addition to the highest price ever sold at an auction, mainly because it took more than five years to carve, but it is still an unfinished work.

For an unfinished work to be auctioned at a high price, it is not only because the jade material is of high quality and rare, but also because of its exquisite craftsmanship that it can be called a masterpiece that will be handed down from generation to generation.

The raw material of jade for this work is natural old pit jade from Myanmar, which is mainly available in the form of rough stone. It caused a sensation in the entire Southeast Asian jade industry and was hailed as the "Jade Emperor". After someone with a destiny collected it, he or she would make a wish to create a masterpiece out of it so that it could be passed down through the ages. In order to realize his wish, the collector visited famous temples in various places with a pious heart. After many years, he finally received enlightenment from great monks. Later, by chance, he met the carving master Mr. Hong. The two of them had a tacit understanding and reached a consensus. They decided to use the 42-armed Thousand-armed Guanyin Bodhisattva in the Dunhuang murals as the prototype to create an astonishing and compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva to worship.

The carving master Mr. Hong has gone through rigorous conception, carving, etc. After spending six years of hard work, he finally completed this masterpiece as he wished. Later, wood carving masters and gilding masters worked together, using fine red sandalwood as raw material, and it took about a year to create the base for enshrining Guanyin Bodhisattva.

In 2014, the work was professionally evaluated by the China Arts and Crafts Association. The evaluation report said that the reference value of the "Forty-two-Armed Thousand-Armed Guanyin" was US$600 million, which is equivalent to more than 3 billion yuan in RMB. Friends will be surprised and wonder why it is so expensive. In fact, this work can be said to be rare in a century. First of all, the raw materials are very rare, and then there is the 6 years of meticulous carving. How can it not be valuable?