The spring auction season has rolled into Beijing. Premier Chinese auction house Guardian launches its spring auction next week. Ahead of that, our reporter Song Yaotian went to one of their previews and learned that contemporary art pieces have seen a rise in popularity in the Chinese auction market.

Guardian is holding a preview for its 20th Century and Contemporary Art segment at its newly built Guardian Art Center, in downtown Wangfujing in the Chinese capital.

More than 200 oil paintings, nearly all created by Chinese artists, will go under the hammer next week. This oil canvas entitled "Yu Gong Moves Away the Mountains", was created by master painter Xu Beihong around 1940. He created three paintings with the same theme. Two belong to Xu Beihong Museum. Only this one is up for grabs in the auction market. Xu had asked a friend to keep many of his art pieces including this one, during the war. After the war, he sent the friend this painting to express his gratitude. 

SONG YAOTIAN BEIJING "For Guardian auctions, previous top highlights mostly belonged in the ancient Chinese painting and calligraphy category. This time around, they say their top highlight is this oil painting, belonging to the contemporary art category. Many expect this oil masterpiece by Xu Beihong, which was kept in a well by a friend to escape the war, to break the record of auctioned Chinese oil paintings, set by Wu Guanzhong's "The Scenery of Zhouzhuang" two years ago."

Other hot pieces up for grabs include art work created during the 1990s. This includes Zhang Xiaogang's signature "Bloodline" series, Jin Shangyi's portrait of Qing dynasty painter Kun Can and a piece depicting mountain rocks by Zhou Chunya. There are also pieces created during the 1980s, including "Aspirant" by Ai Xuan, and several portraits created by Chen Yifei.

The over 200 pieces range from works by Chinese masters in the oil painting category, to pieces created in recent years. And the estimate prices also vary, from tens of thousands to tens of millions of yuan.

Chinese oil paintings among collectors have seen a rise. At Guardian's Autumn auction last year, over 100 oil pieces were up for grabs -- twice more than the number in previous years. And all of them were sold. Among them, Chen Yifei's "Warm Spring in the Jade Pavilion," was sold for nearly 150 million yuan, or 23 million US dollars, turning out to the be top lot for the whole auction.

LI YANFENG, GENERAL MANAGER 20TH CENTURY & CONTEMPORARY ART DEPT., GUARDIAN AUCTIONS "Oil paintings have sold very well in recent years. First, galleries and expos have seen a vibrancy in selling oil pieces. And a lot of young collectors have been newly added into the collector team, which has helped boost auction sales. And the criteria toward "valued" oil paintings are more and more similar among the collectors, which is a signal that the market becoming mature."

Li says Guardian, which has been selling Chinese oil paintings for twenty years, has helped nurture the market. Wu Guanzhong's "The Scenery of Zhouzhuang" now holds the auction record for Chinese oil paintings. It was sold for 190 million yuan or 29 million dollars.

Although Xu Beihong's "Yu Gong Moves Away the Mountains", was sold for 33 million yuan in its last auction in 2006 one must take into account that this was 12 years ago. So it is very likely to break the record. These oil pieces will be under the hammer at a night auction next Tuesday.