On Tuesday night at the Poly International Auction in Beijing, a collection of scrolls collectively containing four parts of the five-part calligraphy work Notes on White Pagoda Mountain, was auctioned at the record price of 101 million yuan ($16.4 million).

This was not just the highest price for any work sold in China during the autumn auction season, but the highest price among all traditional Chinese paintings and calligraphy works sold around the world this year.

Written by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) Emperor Qianlong in 1773 after a visit to White Pagoda Mountain in the imperial gardens near the Forbidden City - actually a small hill on an isle in what is now known as Beihai Park - Notes on White Pagoda Mountain records the history of Beijing and the isle itself.

The calligraphy work is seen as possessing great historic value as some of the architecture and scenery described in the work are now gone.

Though well-known for his calligraphy, Emperor Qianlong left behind few works of his own. Originally five passages in length, each passage of Notes on White Pagoda  Mountain was written on five separate scrolls. However, after the end of the Qing these scrolls were scattered after being auctioned to different collectors.

According to Zhao Xu, executive director of the Poly Auction, it took the scrolls' seller more than two decades to collect four of the remaining five scrolls together, which explains the scrolls' estimated price of 100 million yuan before the auction.  

As quoted by artron.net, domestic collector Liu Yiqian said that the Poly Auction's possession of these four scrolls made it the most eye-catching of all the domestic auction companies this autumn season.