ASIAN ART The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries • june 2005 • £5.00/US$8/€10 The newspaper for collecTors, dealers, museums and galleries • winTer 2023 • £5.00/us$10/€10


THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE AT EUROPEAN AUCTIONS


others a recently discovered delight. One delight was the Korean royal painted silk screen by Kim Deuk-Sin (1754-1822), one of the best court painters of the Joseon dynasty (1392- 1910), which sold at Dreweatts for over 27 times its pre-sale estimate, selling for £218,950 (est £8-12,000). Te screen had attracted attention as it bears the seal of the artist, which rarely happened in these type of Joseon court paintings. Te screen depicts the revered Tang-dynasty General Guo Ziyi (697-781) at a banquet in his honour, one of only 47 paintings on the same topic remaining – the majority are now in museums. It would have been used at very special celebrations, or offered as a congratulatory gift to a distinguished individual or member of the Royal family.


T Royal court painters were


professional artists working for the Dohwaseo, or Korean Royal Academy of Painting, only the most highly skilled of artists were admitted.


here are still some wonders to be had in the Asian auctions, some not a huge surprise,


Eight-panel Korean royal silk screen painting by the court painter Kim Deuk-Sin (1754-1822), Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), sold for £218,950 (est £8-12,000) on 8 November, at Dreweatts, London, showing painting only


Te screen has been bought by an American institution. Elsewhere at the sales, Sotheby’s


in London in October held the final sale of the Edith & Stuart Carey Welch Collection. Among the many lots that achieved sales well over high estimates, a handful of paintings stand out: Te Taj Mahal by Moonlight (1815) by Sita Ram, commissioned by the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings, India, Agra, Fatehgarh and Barrackpore, achieved £482,600 (est £30-50,000); William Fraser’s


Assembly of Village Elders with his Munshi and Diwan by a master artist working for William Fraser,


from


Te Fraser Album, India, Delhi or Haryana, circa 1816, realized £952,500 (est £150-250,000); Mr Adams’ Album, a large album of watercolours depicting people, ceremonies, occupations, genre scenes, architecture, and flora and fauna of India, Bengal, and Burma, circa 1828-40, sold for £304,800 (est £30-50,000); and a Spotted Mounia and a Purple-Rumped Sunbird on


Flowering Branches by Zayn Al-Din, from Te Lady Impey Series, India, Calcutta, dated 1777, which sold for £762,000 (est £150-250,000). Late October saw Chinese Art


from a German Family Collection, at Bonhams Paris. Formed over many decades, this sale offered a wide range of works of art ranging from the early dynastic periods to the 20th century with a strong focus on Buddhist sculpture, cloisonné enamels, scholar’s objects and furniture. Te star lot was a huanghuali yokeback armchair


NEWS IN BRIEF


ANGKOR WAT CAUSEWAY REOPENS IN CAMBODIA In November, as part of the Angkor Wat Restoration Project, King Norodom Sihamoni presided over the opening ceremony of the western grand causeway of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap. Te causeway was closed in 2016 for repairs. Japan is playing a significant role in the process, providing financial and technical supports to Cambodia, especially for the conservation and restoration of Te Bayon and causeway at Angkor Wat, which is the main gateway to the site. Te floating bridge, which has been in use since the closure of the causeway, will remain open and will be used as the exit. Te repairs and strengthening operations were carried out by the National APSARA Authority in collaboration aided by Sophia University in Tokyo. Now with designated entrance and exit points, the restoration aims to streamline visitor management, ensuring that the temple’s sanctity is preserved while accommodating the still growing number of tourists.


NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART, WASHINGTON DC Te Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has announced the signing of memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts for the Kingdom of Cambodia and Badan Layanan Umum Museum dan Cagar Budaya, a unit under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, which outline ways the National Museum of Asian Art will seek to collaborate with these entities to address pressing issues in the global cultural heritage sector. In its second century, the National Museum of


Asian Art has taken a global turn. Tese partnerships with Cambodia and Indonesia animate the museum’s


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dated to the late Ming dynasty, originally from the collection of Hans Wilhelm Siegel (1903-1997), who had reputedly acquired it from renowned dealer Charlotte Horstman in Hong Kong. Tis sold for €356,000, nearly nine times its low estimate of €40,000-60,000. A large imperial cloisonné enamel incense burner cast in the shape of a mythical beast, luduan, and bearing a six-character Qianlong mark, sold for €216,300, over five times its low estimate of €40,000-60,000. Finally, at Mallams in Cheltenham,


another surprise awaited – a Nepalese or Tibetan Malla-dynasty Prabhamandala, dating from the 16th or 17th century, which sold for £10,000 (est £2-3,000). Often placed behind a statue to indicate its status, this Prabhamandala was made from a mercury gilded copper alloy with red painted sections. It


featured


characteristic repoussé sacred symbols, including naga and makara figures, some standing on elephant-type beasts, within a surround of smaller buddhas and birds, height 69 cm high.


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Profile: the painter Han Bing Photographs as narrator, Veins of Influence, images of Ceylon Dining with the Sultan, the art of feasting, in Los Angeles Liquid Frontiers and Entangled Worlds, visual and material culture from the Mediterranean and East Asia The Opulence of the World, Indian paintings from the Metzger Collection, in Zurich Near and Far: connoisseurs, collectors, and dealers of Asian Art in France from 1750 to 1939 Our annual survey of books of 2023 from the Asian and Islamic art worlds, including history, reference, exhibition catalogues, fiction, and more Japanese photographs in Paris, celebrating the Joseon dynasty in Seoul, Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija in New York, and Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence, in Seattle Islamic Arts Diary


Next issue March 2024


A guide to Asia Week New York


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