Liquidators of failed property developer China Evergrande have recovered just $255mn of assets, including a Claude Monet painting, since a formal process began 18 months ago, highlighting the scale of the challenge in unravelling the world’s most indebted real estate company.

The assets recovered so far amount to less than 1 per cent of the group’s total assets of Rmb1.8tn ($250bn) in 2022, the most recent figures following its collapse a year earlier.

Evergrande’s default on its international bonds unnerved markets and marked the reversal of a multi-decade property boom in mainland China. In January 2024, a Hong Kong court issued a winding-up order, ending restructuring talks with offshore bondholders. The firm Alvarez & Marsal was appointed to liquidate Evergrande’s Hong Kong-listed entity.