Asia Week kicked off on Tuesday with a bang. As has been the trend in the last few years, there were plenty of lots selling for 10 times estimates. As always, Chinese ceramics are hot, as are traditional Indian and Himalayan works of art. Perhaps more surprisingly, modern and contemporary Indian art seems to be bouncing back from the low point it has been occupying for the past few seasons.
At Sotheby’s, the evening sale of former Christie’s specialist and collector Amrita Jhaveri’s single-owner “Amaya Collection” sale bucked the underperforming Indian market, with 40 lots selling for $6,694,876. The well-curated sale was 93 percent sold by lot and 90 percent sold by value. This success affirmed both the importance of Jhaveri’s collection and her decision to choose works to sell based on the artist’s proven record at auction. The top lot was an untitled red abstract canvas from 1962 by Indian modernist Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, which fetched $965,000 (est. $600,000-800,000). The top estimated lot, Tyeb Mehta’s 1982 untitled painting of a single geometric figure, estimated to sell for $800,000-1.2 million, was one of only three works bought in.
Sotheby’s also had the first part of its Chinese ceramics and works of art sale Tuesday, which continues through Wednesday. So far, the top selling lot is one of those Antiques Roadshow fantasy-type objects that was originally bought for $3 at a garage sale. Sotheby's experts gave it an estimate of $200,000-300,000, and it ended up hammering down for $2,225,000. The “Ding” bowl , from the Northern Song dynasty, sold to London-based dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi.
Further downtown, Christie’s had two sales: traditional works of Indian and Southeast Asian art, and a tiny single-owner sale of early Tibetan painting. The latter did both better and worse than expected — it was only 50 percent sold by lot, but the four paintings that did sell were within or over presale estimates. A European collector scooped up a rare Buddha painting, dating from the 13th-14th centuries, for $1,263,750 (est. $600,000-800,000).
The full sale of traditional Southeast Asian artworks fared much better. The $17,419,375 total was 74 percent sold by lot and 89 percent sold by value, reflecting the somewhat recent craze for traditional statues from the region. Three works sold for more than $1 million during the sale, the most surprising of which was a gilt-bronze figure of the wrathful diety Vajrakila Heruka and Dipta Chakra, from 14th-15th century Tibet. At only 11 inches high, the statue looks something like an ancient action figure. It sold for $2,139,750 — 10 times its $200,000 low estimate.