Sneak Peek at Christie’s New York Asian Art Week 2021

Christie’s New York has unveiled the upcoming auction schedule for the spring Asian Art Week. Taking place from March 16 to 19, a total of seven sales and events - both virtually and at the Rockefeller Plaza galleries in New York, will showcase works from different categories of Asian art, spanning across archaic bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection, jade carvings from the Junkunc Collection, Himalayan bronzes, to paintings and prints by Hokusai, Tyeb Mehta, Francis Newton Souza and more.

 

Here is an overview of the sales, together with the highlight lots:

Japanese and Korean Art 

The sale features an array of prints and paintings such as the most important print of The Great Wave off Kanagawa by kiyo-e master Kitagawa Utamaro and Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, a six-panel folding screen by Kanō Einō, created in the Edo period of Japan. Selections of lacquer works, metalworks, screens and important Korean Works of Art will also be presented in this sale.

 

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), The Great Wave off Kanagawa | Woodblock prints

Painted in: 1831

Estimate: US$150,000 - 200,000

 

Kanō Einō (1631-1697), Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons

Sale: Japanese and Korean Art 

Provenance: The Estate of Miriam S. Poser Collection 

Estimate: US$50,000 - 70,000


South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art

The sale is led by early works by Indian painter Tyeb Mehta, Confidant, together with other works by modern masters Maqbool Fida Husain, Sayed Haider Raza and Narayan Shridhar Bendre.

 

Tyeb Mehta, Untitled (Confidant, 1962) | oil on canvas

Sale: South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art

Dimensions: 101.6 x 126.4 cm

Painted in 1962

Estimate: US$600,000 - 800,000

Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002), Untitled | Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 105.4 x 59.4 cm

Painted in 1961

Estimates: US$150,000 - 250,000


Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art 

Featuring fine Buddist and Hindu artworks from across Indian, Himalayas, and Southeast Asia, the sale is led by a selection of Gandharan sculptures, which often demonstrate similarities with ancient Greek works, thanks to Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism.

Gray Schist Figure of Buddha Shakyamuni

Ancient Region of Gandhara, 3rd-4th Century CE

Height: 175 cm

Estimate: US$1,500,000 - 2,500,000


Shang: Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection

A highlight of this year’s Asian Art Week, The Luboshez Gong is the one to watch. A part of a Chinese artwork collection formed over a span of 25 years, amassed by American collector Daniel Shapiro, the rare bronze ritual wine vessel dates back to the Shang dynasty (late 13th to 12th century BC. It carries a pre-sale estimate of US$4m to US$6m - higher than any other lots going under hammer in the Asian Art Week of Christie’s.

 

The Luboshez Gong - A Bronze Ritual Wine Vessel, Late Shang dynasty, Anyang

Provenance: 

  • Acquired by Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez (1896-1984) in Shanghai in 1948

  • Important Chinese Ceramics - Bronzes and Works of Art: The Collection of Captain S.N. Ferris Luboshez, USN (Ret'd) Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, November 18, 1982, Lot 12

  • Private collection, Switzerland, 1982-1996

  • James J. Lally, New York, 1996

  • Daniel Shapiro Collection, New York

Estimate: US$4,000,000 - 6,000,000

 

A Bronze Ritual Rectangular Wine Vessel, Fangyi, Late Shang dynasty, Anyang

Height: 22 cm

Provenance:

  • The Collection of Mildred R. and Rafi Y. Mottahedeh, New York

  • Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, November 4, 1978, lot 318

  • James J. Lally, New York, 1992

  • Daniel Shapiro Collection, New York

Estimate: US$600,000 - 800,000


Important Chinese Art from the Junkunc Collection

Present in the sale is a myriad of early Chinese bronzes, Buddhist figures, lacquers, and scholar’s objects amassed by Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978) - a Budapest-born Chinese art collector. The Junkunc Collection, at its height numbered over 2,000 examples of exceptional Chinese porcelain, jade, bronzes, paintings and Buddhist sculptures. 

 

A White And Yellowish-Brown Jade Camel, Tang-Yuan dynasty 

Height: 6.7 cm

Provenance: 

  • Tonying & Co., New York, 1946
  • Stephen Junkunc, III (1904-1978) Collection

Estimate: US$300,000 - 500,000

 

Gilt Silver “Dragon & Phoenix” Sheath, Liao/ Yuan dynasty

Length: 21.7 cm

Provenance: Stephen Junkunc, III (1904-1978) Collection

Estimate: US$150,000 - 250,000

 

A Miniature Yellow Jade Faceted Pear-Shaped Jar with Cover, Qing dynasty, Qianlong or earlier

Height: 8.6 cm

Provenance:

  • Nagatani, Inc., Chicago, September 3, 1946
  • Stephen Junkunc, III (1904-1978) Collection

Estimate: US$100,000 - 150,000

 

A 17th/ 18th-Century White Jade Figure of a Mythical Beast

Length: 9 cm

Provenance: Stephen Junkunc, III (1904-1978) Collection

Estimate: US$100,000 - 150,000

 

A Carved White Jade Figure of Buddha, Qing dynasty

Height: 12.7 cm

Provenance: Stephen Junkunc, III (1904-1978) Collection

Estimate: US$80,000 - 120,000


Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

One of the routine sales every season, the sale covers everything from Chinese furniture, Ming and Qing porcelain, to Buddhist sculptures, jades, and works of art. With Chinese furniture receiving such positive response at auctions for a number of seasons, this year’s highlight - a 17th-century huanghuali incense stand that dates back to the Qing dynasty, carries a pre-sale estimate of US$800,000 to US$1,200,000.

A Hexagonal Huanghuali Incense Stand, 17th Century

Dimensions: 88.9 x 57.2 x 49.2 cm

Provenance: 

  • Nicolas Grindley Works of Art, Ltd., London
  • Eskenazi Ltd., London

Estimate: US$800,000 - 1,200,000

 

A Large Gilt-Lacquered Wood Figure of a Bodhisattva, Qing dynasty, Kangxi

Height: 70 cm (figure); 94.1 cm (overall)

Provenance: 

  • M.C. Hammonds Collection, acquired in the 1930s

  • M. C. Hammonds Foundation, Switzerland, 1995

Estimate: US$300,000 - 500,000