BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- A calligraphic album of 37 poems by Mao Zedong with sound provenance fetched 14.26 million yuan ($2.34 million) at an auction in Beijing on Saturday night.

The calligraphic works were painted in running script (xing shu) by Guo Moruo (1892-1978), a government official and leading author and scholar of 20th-century China.

Guo finished the album in 1967, a year after the start of the "cultural revolution" (1966-76). He gave them to his sister-in-law Yu Lixiu as a gift.

Yu kept the album as a family treasure for decades, including years of harshness when she labored at a cadre school in Anhui province.

"I believe collecting means history, emotion and responsibility. The works have a soul and provide a living historical context. I hope they can find a 'bosom buddy' who will preserve them well and promote their glories," Yu said.

The album attracted a packed room of bidders and observers at the China Guardian Auctions' autumn sales.

"The lot is a treasure because you rarely find such a complete album with a large sheet size among Guo's works of calligraphy. At the age of 75, he endowed every character under his brush with vigor and richness," said Dai Wei, manager of Guardian Auctions' Chinese painting and calligraphy department.

"One can feel Yu's deep admiration and respect for her brother-in-law, the person who led her to 'pursue truth, virtue and beauty', rising from the paper," he said.

Before Saturday night's sale, Irrigation Ditch of Happiness (Xing Fu Qu), a modern Chinese painting portraying Mao attending the opening of an irrigation ditch at a revolutionary base, was sold privately for 40.6 million yuan.

The work was painted by a production team led by noted painter Liu Wenxi. It created a great stir when it appeared at the national fine arts exhibition in 1974 and was widely published as posters and on the covers of magazines. It was later identified as a textbook work of the revolutionary-era "Red Classics" art genre.