A work of Chinese calligraphy long believed destroyed in the turmoil of 1945 has resurfaced after 81 years to sell for HK$177.45 million (US$22.6 million) at China Guardian Hong Kong's autumn auction, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The work, known as Jishi Tie or Accumulated Time Letter, is by Yu Shinan (558-638), one of the great calligraphers of the early Tang dynasty who served under Emperor Taizong and helped codify the classical tradition rooted in Wang Xizhi. The piece is recorded in the Shiqu Baoji, the Qing imperial catalogue of painting and calligraphy, marking it as a work once held in the imperial collection. Offered in the house's autumn sale of Chinese paintings and calligraphy, the scroll drew sustained competition before hammering at HK$155 million, with the buyer's premium taking the final price to HK$177.45 million. The result makes it one of the most valuable works of Chinese calligraphy sold at auction in recent years. Its reappearance is the story. Presumed lost amid the chaos at the end of the Second World War, the scroll had been absent from public view for more than eight decades. Its survival and return to the market underline how much of China's dispersed artistic heritage remains unaccounted for, and how the re-emergence of a single documented masterpiece can still electrify the saleroom. The sale continues a strong autumn season for classical Chinese art in Hong Kong, where top-tier calligraphy and painting with impeccable imperial provenance have consistently commanded the market's highest prices.