On March 17, Christie’s hosted its first-ever evening sale dedicated to Asian art in New York. The occasion was the first offering from the prized Robert Hatfield Ellsworth Collection, regarded as the most prestigious — not to mention largest — private collection of Asian art to hit the auction block. Thanks to the freshness of the material and the pedigreed provenance, the house had no trouble securing buyers for all 57 lots, and with a whopping $61,107,500, total, the results demonstrated strength across all areas of the market for Indian, Himalayan, Southeast Asian, Chinese, and Japanese art.The sale began promptly at 6 p.m., with fierce participation from telephone bidders and individuals in the room for a superb gilt-bronze figure of a seated bear from China’s Western Han Dynasty (206 BC). With an opening bid of $140,000, the piece raced past its $300,000 high estimate before selling to an individual in the room for a hammer price of $2,400,000, $2,853,000 with buyer’s premium.The energy continued for jade, bronze, and porcelain from China and Tibet: A rare and important bronze 11th–12th century Tibetan figure of a seated yogi, possibly Padampa Sangye, quickly climbed above its $1,500,000 high estimate within mere seconds. Multiple bidders in the salesroom and on the phone chased the foot-high figure, before the piece landed a hammer price of $4,200,000, $4,869,000 with buyer’s premium, setting a record price for a Tibetan sculpture. However, additional Nepalese bronzes failed to realize similar results: A gilt-bronze seated figure of Indra from the 14th or 15th century (est. $600–800,000), fetched a comparatively weak $389,000, signaling an informed and choosy market. A very rare, large Cizhou-type russet-painted black-ground ovoid jar from China during the Jin-Yuan Dynasty (13th century) elicited a fury of bidding between interested parties on the telephone before taking in $665,000, more than eight times its $80,000 high estimate.The real excitement of the evening arrived when a battle broke out between a man standing in the room and two bidders on the telephone over a large and important gilt-bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara from Nepal, circa 13th century (est. $2–3 million). The opening bid started at $1 million before leaping to $6 million, then to $7 million — until eventually, a telephone bidder secured the piece for $8,229,000, setting an auction record for a Nepalese sculpture. A rare and highly important bronze figure of Shiva Gangadhara Nataraja from Tamil Nadu in South India and dating to the Chola Period (9th century) followed, also establishing a record price for an Indian bronze when it scored $2,853,000 (est. $2–3 million).Chinese furniture from the Ming and early Qing Dynasty was also sought after. An extremely rare and important set of four huanghuali horseshoe-back armchairs from Quanyi, China, during the Ming Dynasty (17th century), set a record price for huanghuali furniture when it soared past its $1,200,000 high estimate to an impressive $9,685,000 — the top price of the evening — offered by an individual in the room. Minutes later, the same bidder secured a very rare pair of huanghuali bamboo-form continuous horseshoe-back armchairs from the late Ming or early Qing Dynasty for $2,629,000 (est. $300–500,000). The sale concluded on a high note when a large polychrome wood figure of a seated Bodhisattva from China’s Song-Jin Dynasty (AD 960–1234), captured $1,685,000 against a high estimate of $300,000.With 100 percent of lots finding buyers, the house more than doubled their presale estimate of $28 million. The sales of the Ellsworth Collection will continue throughout the remainder of the week, spanning Chinese paintings, scholar’s objects, ceramics, metalwork, jade carvings, and glass.
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