Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- London auction houses are selling 16 million pounds ($26 million) of Asian art this week as a record number of buyers from mainland China flock to Britain.

The collectors have been attracted by gallery shows and sales, with the star lot an Imperial jade seal that last night fetched 3.6 million pounds, six times its top estimate.

“We’ve seen a really aggressive push from mainland Chinese collectors during the last season of sales,” Nicolas Chow, Sotheby’s international head of Chinese ceramics and works of art, said in an interview. “What is new is that they’re buying things at the very highest level,” he said. The seal was “like holding Imperial power in the palm of your hand.”

Newly wealthy Chinese are keen to acquire high quality objects from their heritage, particularly when associated with Emperors from the Qing and Ming dynasties, said dealers.

With mainland collectors and traders needing a formal invitation to travel to the U.K., dealers said that more than ever were in town for in the 12th annual Asian Art in London event, running through Nov. 7. Christie’s International sent invites to 210 mainland Chinese, with Sotheby’s writing to a similar number as demand and prices rise for Asian antiques.

The five-inch-by-five-inch seal, carved with a pair of dragons, was included in Sotheby’s 261-lot auction. The piece was made for the 55th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong, who ruled China from 1736 to 1795. The seal, from a European private collection, was fought for by eight bidders and was sold to an anonymous dealer in the room, said Sotheby’s.

Record Price

A soapstone seal used by the 17th-century Emperor Kangxi was bought by a Chinese bidder for a record 5.6 million euros ($8.3 million) at an auction in Toulouse, France, in June 2008.

Last month, Sotheby’s Hong Kong art auction raised HK$1.3 billion ($170 million), helped by mainland Chinese buyers.

Apart from auctions, also taking place at Bonhams (which has invited 30 new mainland Chinese buyers), 40 of London’s commercial galleries are offering antiques and artworks ranging from the Middle East to Japan. Many of the week’s most expensively valued pieces are Chinese in origin.

Christie’s Nov. 3 sale of Chinese ceramics and works of art totaled 5.7 million pounds with fees, against a high estimate of 5.2 million pounds, based on hammer prices.

A third of the 319 lots were rejected. Among these was an 18th-century Imperial jade brushpot, estimated at 300,000 pounds to 400,000 pounds, which failed because of criticism of the stone’s color, said dealers.

The top lot was an 18th-century enamel model of a Buddhist stupa, or shrine, which sold for 229,250 pounds against an estimate of 60,000 pounds to 80,000 pounds.

Asian Buyers

Nine out of the 10 most expensive items in the sale fell to Asian buyers, said Christie’s.

“Now English isn’t much heard at the views of these London auctions,” said Marco Almeida, Christie’s London-based specialist in Chinese ceramics and works of art. “It’s just Mandarin and Cantonese.”

Sotheby’s raised 8.3 million pounds in its sale, exceeding its estimate of between 3.4 million pounds and 5 million pounds; 41 percent of the lots failed to sell.

Bonhams will today be offering a white jade seal used by the Emperor Guangxu, who reigned from 1874 to 1908, with an estimate of 100,000 pounds to 150,000 pounds. The seal has been in the same private European collection since the 1960s, said Bonhams, which said its auction of more than 300 lots of Chinese art is estimated to fetch 2 million pounds.

Imperial Love

Littleton & Hennessy is one of Asian Art in London’s participating dealers aiming to capitalize on Chinese collectors’ love of all things Imperial. Three brush pots of varying dates and materials, each priced at about 400,000 pounds, have already attracted interest from collectors, said Ruben Lien, a partner at the gallery.

By Nov. 3, west London dealer Marchant had sold 21 of the 54 pieces of Ming-dynasty porcelain it was showing in an exhibition to celebrate the opening of its refurbished Kensington gallery, said chairman Richard Marchant.

“That’s already a ‘wow’ result,” said Marchant. “We normally aim to sell a third of the pieces by the end of an exhibition. Chinese buyers are now the major players in the market: They want to repatriate their art. It’s made a huge difference to demand.”

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 16:00 EST