Christie’s Asia Weeks sales held at the house’s New York headquarters generated a total of $82.8 million, achieving an 84% sell-through rate by lot, and together hammered at 175% above low estimate across eight sales. Across categories in the Asian art department, 13 records were achieved throughout the week and 13 lots exceeded a sale price of $1 million.

Indian and Southeast Asian artworks saw new records across the auctions and led the overall results. The top lot of the week was a grey schist triad of Buddha Shakyamuni that sold for $6.6 million and set the world auction record for a Gandharan work of art. A bronze figure of Shiva Tripuravijaya, from the South India, Tamil Nadu region, dated during the Chola period, circa 1050 achieved more than four times its estimate selling for $4.4 million.

Coming from the James and Marilyn Alsdorf collection, the Shiva bronze figure set a record for a South Indian sculpture. In the Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary art sale, an untitled painting by Tyeb Mehta from 1974 sold for $1.1 million, landing within its estimate of $1 million-1.5 million. In the Chinese art sales, a Northern Qi grey limestone figure of Buddha realized $2.6 million. In the Japanese art sale, a woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai, The Great Wave, sold for $1.1 million and set the record for the print by the artist.

The private collection sale of Jane and Kito de Boer totaled $3.7 million with 82% sold by lot and 81% sold by value. Six records were set during the sale including artist records for Chittaprosad Bhattacharya, Prosanto Roy, Prokash Karmakar, and Rama Mukherji along with a record for an Early Bengal oil painting and a record for a figurative work by Biren De. Top lots lot of the sale included Rameshwar Broota’s Silent Structures (1991), which sold for $525,000; and a 1982 painting by Broota titled The Last Chapter, which achieved $287,500.

The South East Asian Modern and Contemporary Art sale realized a total of $4.9 million. Jehangir Sabavala’s The Peasants (1981) sold for $966,000, surpassing its high estimate of $600,000 and establishing a record for the artist. Other highlights by modernists include The Pull (1952), a rare early work by Maqbool Fida Husain that sold for $822,000, more than doubling its low estimate of $300,000 and Candameric (1969), a landscape by Sayed Haider Raza that sold for $175,000, landing within its estimate range. Elsewhere in the sale, B. Vithal’s Untitled (Horses) from 1979 sold for $27,500. It doubled its low estimate of $12,000 and set a new auction record for the artist.

Two sales devoted to the Alsdorf collection achieved a total of $22.5 million. The first part saw a 100% sell-through rate and achieved 329% hammer above the low estimate. Other notable results included a rare marble head of buddha, China, Sui dynasty, AD 550-618 that sold for $2.3 million against its low estimate of $500,000.

Angelica Villa

Source 

Originally posted 2020-09-30 13:34:37.