ASIAN ART
The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries
june 2005
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BRONZES AND SURPRISES IN NEW YORK SPRING SALES Archaic Chinese bronzes were stars of the show during Asia Weeks Sales in March this year. Top lots from both Christie’s and Sotheby’s at the Spring sales were late Shang-dynasty Chinese archaic bronzes. Christie’s single-owner sale, Shang: Early Chinese Ritual Bronzes from the Daniel Shapiro Collection, on 18 March, offered lots from China’s formative Shang bronze culture from a renowned American collection formed over a span of 25 years. The late Shang-dynasty lots on offer comprised four bronze ritual wine vessels, including a trumpet necked slender vessel, gu; a bulbous vessel, pou; a rectangular formed vessel with lid, fangyi; and a vessel in the form of a fierce tiger, gong. Leading the sale was the Luboshez Gong, which sold for US$8,604,000 (est US$4-6 million). An important bronze ritual wine vessel dating to the 13th-12th century BC, the vessel combines a pouncing tiger with a standing owl forming a powerful mythical creature. The name stems from Captain SN Ferris Luboshez, who acquired the object in
Shanghai in 1948. Few similar examples are known, however, one of which is in the Harvard Art Museums. The other vessel in the collection to achieve selling for over one million dollars was a ritual wine vessel with cover, the fangyi, which has a distinctive rectangular shape with tapered sides and a delicately rounded lid that is decorated with taotie masks and flanked by a pair of long-tailed birds and confronting dragons divided by subtle flanges. This vessel sold for US$1,110,000. At Sotheby’s, in the Important Chinese Art sale on 17 March, an important documentary archaic bronze ritual food vessel, gui, also from the late Shang dynasty, probably circa 1072 BC, sold for US$5,434,500 million (est US$600-800,000). That was more than six times its high estimate – and was the top selling lot of Asia Week for the auction house. Sotheby’s catalogue notes comment that the Shang period (circa 1600 to 1045 BC) is China’s first historic dynasty and the first era from which written documents are preserved that
The Luboshez Gong, an important bronze ritual wine vessel and cover from the late Shang dynasty, Anyang, 13/12th century BC, length 29.8 cm, sold for US$8,604,000 at Christie’s, New York, in March this year
corroborate the period’s historicity. Such documentation is known only from the time of the last nine Shang kings, beginning with Wu Ding (proposed reign dates circa 1250 to circa 1192 BC), when the capital was at Anyang, Henan. Historic
Chinese, Japanese & South East Asian Art Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers
Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 May
documents come mainly in the form of inscribed oracle bones that were used for divination; but besides oracle bones, a few bronzes were cast with ancestor dedications, which can also mention historic events. The gui from this sale is one of these
NEWS IN BRIEF
Inside
TAKASHI MURAKAMI AND THE MARKET IN NFTS
In the fast-moving world of digital work created as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) Takashi Murakami has decided against selling his newly-minted digital artworks as NFTs, explaining that he wants to take more time to better understand the blockchain technology before moving forward. Murakami announced last month that he would be launching his first-ever digital artwork through popular NFT marketplace OpenSea. The Japanese contemporary artist, known for his signature flowers, initially put up 108 designs for sale. It seem that out of nowhere, these are popular blockchain assets that crypto enthusiasts around the world are paying top dollar for. Sotheby’s have just announced that their first sale of NFTs where thousand of buyers bought work by the anonymous artist Pak’s US$500 cubes, which were made in an open edition. The auction house’s first-ever NFT auction totalled US$17 million.
SAMSUNG COLLECTION, JAPAN
A rare and large gold and silver-inlaid bronze tapir-form vessel, zun, Yuan/ Ming dynasty, 13th-15th century £50,000-£80,000*
Scan the QR code to view the auction catalogue www.roseberys.co.uk Email asian@roseberys.co.uk for more information 70/76 Knights Hill, London SE27 0JD | +44 (0) 20 8761 2522 *Plus Buyer’s Premium +VAT (30% inclusive of VAT)
rare vessels of historic significance. The historic event inscribed on the vessel is a well-known military expedition of the Shang against the Renfang, also known as Yifang, an enemy tribe in the east, which is also recorded on three other bronzes: the famous rhinoceros-shaped zun from the Avery Brundage collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. The 34-character legend on the gui follows a characteristic pattern, which begins with a cyclical date and ends with a calendar date. And the surprise of the week was at Sothebys, where a Ming-dynasty (1368-1644), Yongle-period (r 14031424), blue-and-white ‘floral’ bowl sold for US$721,800 (est US$300500,000), following a bidding battle between four bidders. It was originally purchased for just US$35 at a Connecticut yard sale. It is delicately potted form is in the shape of a lotus bud, lianzhi, or chicken heart, jixin and has a diameter of 16 cm. Just six companion bowls are known, with most held in museum collections in the world.
A group consisting of 12 South Korean arts organisations and eight former Ministers of Culture is lobbying the Korean government for the use of cultural assets as in-kind tax payments to prevent the overseas sale of the art collection of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee (1942–2020). Lee’s heirs are due to pay a record-high inheritance tax of KRW11 trillion (US$ 9.8 billion) by the end of last month (April). The country’s most influential businessman, Lee, who died in October 2020, amassed around 13,000 art objects, comprised of antiques, and modern and contemporary art, with an estimated worth of over KRW 3 trillion (US$ 2.7 billion). The group of cultural leaders, which also includes the Korean Fine Arts Association and Korean Museum Association,
2 Profile: the sculptor Nairy Baghramian 6 Stories from Storage: Curators’ choices from Cleveland 8 Babur and the creation of the first Mughal gardens 10 Iranzamin, the first show of the Powerhouse’s Persian collection in Sydney 12 Indian Painting, from the Deccan, in Switzerland 14 From the Archive: Sumatra, Isle of Gold, held in Sinagpore 16 Contemporary Moroccan art in Spain 17 Documenting the Silk Road 18 Exhibitions: Blue and White ceramics, Modern Indian Art, Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon, and photography from Egypt 19 Yayoi Kusama, Indian textiles, and Chiharu Shiota 20 Gallery shows in Brussels, Los Angeles, and New York 21 Auctions previews, Hong Kong 22 Auctions revoiews, New York 23 Islamic Arts Diary
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