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 • £5.00/US$10


Summer Quarter 2018


ROCKEFELLER NAME WORKS ITS MAGIC IN NEW YORK


IT WAS a mammoth undertaking by Christie’s that reaped monumental awards. After a six- month campaign, there were 10 days of online sales and three days of auctions at Christie’s aptly named Rockefeller Center. Over the course of the 10-day viewing in New York, Christie’s welcomed 30,000 visitors to the exhibition, designed as an immersive walk-through experience inspired by the Rockefeller family homes in upstate New York, Maine and Manhattan. Combined with the global tour of collection highlights to Hong Kong, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Beijing and Shanghai, where 80,000 visited the exhibitions. Including the online, sale registrants came from 53 countries. Te buyers were led by the Americas 73%, followed by EMERI 18%, and Asia 10%. New buyers accounted for 61% of the buyers in the online sale with 28% of clients buying more than one lot online. Over 1,500 objects that comprised the Collection of Peggy and David


Rockefeller were offered and the sales’ final total was $832,573,469, exceeding estimates – not surprising with the provenance and cachet attached to the name – establishing it as the highest auction total ever for a private collection at auction. Te Rockefellers were known for their connoisseurship. All proceeds are going to charities supported by the Peggy and David Rockefeller foundations to benefit scientific research, higher education, support for arts,


sustainable economic


development, and land conservation amongst others. In Asian art, world records in the


Travel and Americana sale included an imperial gilt-bronze figure of Amitayus which sold for $2,532,500, setting a record for a Kangxi gilt- bronze; a large Chinese export ‘tobacco leaf’


assembled dinner


service, Qianlong period, circa 1775, that fetched $1,152,500 (est $200/300,000), setting a record for a dinner service; and for Portrait of the Artist Reza ‘Abbasi by Mu’in Musavvir, Isfan, signed and dated


Imperial gilt-bronze figure of Amitayus, China, Kangxi period (1662-1722), height 419 cm, sold for $2,532,500 (est $400/600,000), 10 June


Ayyubid silver-inlaid brass domed cylindrical incense burner, Syria, second half of 13th century, height 191 cm, sold for $432,500 (est $150/200,000), 10 June


NEWS IN BRIEF


Oceans Formed: Glass Works by Midori Tsukada


May 24 – June 21, 2018


JAPAN HOUSE TO OPEN LONDON Te official opening of Japan House London to the public is on 22 June, a new home for Japanese creativity. Te brand new cultural destination to the UK will provide visitors with authentic and surprising encounters with the very best in Japanese art, design, gastronomy, innovation and technology. Te global project, which is funded by the Japanese Government, has already seen Houses open in Sao Paulo and Los Angeles. Japan House London is revitalising an Art Deco building on Kensington High Street, west London, and will feature a rolling roster of exhibitions from esteemed Japanese artists. Starting with Sou Fujimoto: Futures of the Future in collaboration with Tokyo’s Toto Gallery. Upcoming exhibitions in the library will include Nature of Japan (June to August) featuring photographs by Japanese photographer, Suzuki Risaku and an exhibition on Mingei (Sept to Nov). Te building will also house a contemporary Japanese restaurant – Akira, as well as a retail outlet. More information on japanhouselondon.uk


SYMPOSIUM AMSTERDAM To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Asian Art Society of the Netherlands, the society has organised the symposium Collecting Asian Art in the Western World: Past, Present, & Future on 23 June. Te Vereniging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst (VVAK) was founded in 1918 as an entirely private initiative. Te collection of the VVAK distinguishes itself from the


12 E. 86th St., # 507, New York, NY 10028 T. +1. 212.967.4899 mail@ippodogallery.com www.ippodogallery.com Ippodo Gallery_June2018_ver01.indd 1 17/05/2018 10:48


collections of the various Dutch ethnographical museums by focusing on high-quality art works only. Te VVAK does not collect any form of export art made for the West. Te growing collection was initially shown at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, before it was moved to the Rijksmuseum in 1952, where it has been on loan ever since. Te vast majority of the art objects displayed in the Asian Pavilion of the Rijksmuseum is the property of the VVAK. Te symposium will take place at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. All information is available of the society’s website: vvak.nl, info@vvak.nl.


QATAR NATIONAL LIBRARY Te British Library, the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and the Qatar National Library are extending their partnership to digitise a vast range of important historical collections relating to the Gulf region. Te partnership began in 2012 and the extension, which takes the project into a third phase, will now last until December 2021 and will significantly expand a bilingual website of Gulf history and Arabic scientific manuscripts. About 900,000 more images of historical material related to the Gulf will be digitised in addition to the 1.5 million images already made available online by the partnership. Te Gulf-related material includes music, maps, ships’ logs, reports, letters, private papers (including the Curzon Papers), and historical publications. It also draws upon the British Library’s exceptionally rich collections of Arabic scientific manuscripts.


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5 Safar AH1087/ April AD 1676 set a world auction record for the artist. Te top lot was a blue and white


‘dragon’ bowl, which also


soared over estimate fetching $2,772,500 (est $400/600,000), and a rare Ayyubid silver and inlaid brass domed cylindrical incense burner from Syria, second half 13th century, which used to


sit on David


Rockefeller’s desk , sold for $432,500 (est $150/200,000). David Rockefeller, Jr, said, ‘Tis


week of auctions has exceeded our expectations in so many ways. Christie’s and our family had a shared financial goal of raising more than $500 million in estate proceeds for the 12 philanthropies our parents cared about so deeply, and it has been both humbling and deeply gratifying to see a sale total that reaches so far beyond that. Tis was an experience that beautifully and thoroughly conveyed Peggy and David Rockefeller’s great passion for art,


design, craftsmanship and


beauty’. Te family name had worked its magic again.


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