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Thursday, April 10, 2014  22ºC 76%

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Cops back off as Poly sets missing painting probe Qi Luo Thursday, April 10, 2014 The auction house at the center of a missing Chinese ink painting that sold for HK$28.75 million has asked police to drop the case.A police spokesman said Poly Auction requested them to "withdraw the case and that they do not need police assistance." Police are treating the case as lost property and will not follow up on it unless a new lead emerges. Poly said it will launch an investigation and assured that all auctioned items were insured and would be compensated according to Hong Kong's insurance laws. "Snowy Mountain," by renowned Chinese artist Cui Ruzhuo, was bought at a sale by Poly, the world's third-largest auctioneer, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Monday. CCTV footage showed a security guard appearing to accidentally kick a tube, believed to have contained the painting, into a stack of rubbish, which was then shipped to a landfill. The incident raised concern over whether Poly had been acting professionally in handling artworks. After being sold, the painting was placed with other sold items in a corner of the hall that night. The person in charge, returning the next morning to pick up the valuables, then discovered it was lost and reported it to police. A spokeswoman for the hotel said both security and cleaning contractors were hired by the auction house. The president of the International Professional Insurance Consulting Association, Paul Law Siu-hung, said the auction house apparently had flaws in procedures. "Auction houses have certain procedures to store items that have been sold," he said."The janitor might not know of the existence of the painting." The chairman of the General Insurance Council of the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers, Jimmy Poon Wing-fai, said the responsibility depends on whether Poly gave clear instructions. "If it told the janitor the items were trash, the janitor did nothing wrong and was doing his job," Poon said. A number of Cui's paintings were sold in the same auction, including "Landscape in Snow," which fetched HK$184 million. Other works of Cui, born in 1944, are displayed in the Great Hall of the People and the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.