Christie's saw spectacular results on September 11-14, as its Asia Week in New York was led by a sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art.
 This zun headlined the highest-selling auction of the week |
The September 13-14 auction saw a total of $19.5m, with a rare bronze ritual wine vessel selling as top lot at $1.4m. Known as a Zun, the 12th-10th century BC piece soared past its $300,000 high estimate to bring a 375.5% increase.
Also on September 13 was the Asian art reference books sale, which featured a selection of important texts from the CT Loo library. Leading was Seiichi Mizuno and Toshio Nagahiro's Yung Kang: The Buddhist Cave-Temples of the Fifth Century AD in North China, which beat its $7,000 estimate by 964.2%, bringing $74,500.
In contrast to previous Asia Weeks from Christie's, this instalment saw a larger offering of works from outside of China. The September 11 Japanese and Korean Art auction was topped by an important blue and white porcelain dragon jar from Korea's Joseon Dynasty, which stands as the single-highest selling piece of the entire week.
A world record price was achieved for a Tibetan thangka, or silk painting, which depicted the Green Tara bodhisattva. The spectacular 13th-14th century work achieved a 193.7% increase on estimate, selling at $1.7m.
South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art was highlighted by an untitled piece from India's most prominent abstract artist, Vasudeo S Gaitonde. The 1969 work sold for $962,500, up 60.4% on its $600,000 valuation.
In total, all five sales from the auction house realised a combined $44.7m over four days.
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