A painting titled "Dragonflies On A Lotus Pool" by late prominent Chinese artist Qi Baishi was sold at a recent auction in Shanghai for 583,000 yuan (about 70495 US dollars), the highest price paid for any of the nearly 800 Chinese artworks up for bidding.

About 780 art items were auctioned for a total of 15 million yuan at the November 29 sale by the Duoyunxuan Arts Auction Company, a leading art auction house in China.

Among the works by both modern and ancient artists were paintings, calligraphy, ancient porcelain, and books.

Sources with the auction house said 80 percent of the items were bought by domestic collectors, compared with a fraction of that figure at the company's previous auctions.