Rare art on block
Bronze vessel thousands of years old among treasures for sale
Chinese fine paintings, archaic bronzes, sculptures and ceramics were scheduled to go under the hammer at Christie’s and Sotheby’s Asia week auctions in New York this week.
Highlighting a rare bronze ritual food vessel, Zuo Bao Yi Gui, from the early Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century771 BC), the auctions will include eight themed sales offering more than 900 objects, which also include contemporary Indian painting.
The food vessel, which was once in the collection of emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), might be one of only 15 four-legged examples known to exist, according to Tong Lingao, a specialist at the Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Department of Christie’s. “Where Chinese art is concerned, Qianlong provenance is the best you can get, but the majority of his ancient bronzes still remain in the Forbidden City in Beijing,” Tong said.
Only six other archaic bronzes from the Qianlong collection are known to be in private hands today.
It’s expected to sell for between $4 million and $6 million when it goes under the hammer in a stand-alone sale on Thursday.
Apart from the vessel, highlights of the Fine Chinese Paintings auctions include a contemporary painting titled
Horses by Ma Xinle from the collection of Steven C. Rockefeller, Jr., a piece by watercolor master Qi Baishi named Pumpkins, and a vibrant work titled Landscape by the well-known master Zhang Daqian.
In addition, two rare early Tang Dynasty (618-907) gray limestone Buddhist figures, of Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta, are expected to fetch up to $2.5 million each at Christie’s.
Sothebys’ auctions feature two distinct collections — Chinese Buddhist sculpture and Qing Dynasty porcelain from the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, one of the most prominent US collectors of Chinese art in the 20th century and a collection of classical paintings from the collection of Tang Hung and Fung Bi-Che, both students of Zhang Daqian.
“The selection of Buddhist sculpture at the heart of this offering represents the best such material to appear at auction since the famed J.T. Tai sale at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 1997,” said Angela McAteer, the head of Sotheby’s Chinese Works of Art Department in New York.
The sale of the Junkunc Collection comprises 17 pieces that span nearly 1,000 years of early Buddhist stone, lacquer and gilt-bronze sculptures dating from the Northern Wei (386-534) to Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, led by a painted limestone figure of a standing Bodhisattva from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which is expected to sell for up to $2.5 million.
They are among the more than 1,000 works offered across six sales at Sotheby’s starting on Wednesday.