Sotheby's Asia Week sales total $56.1m in New York

Following Sotheby's best ever year for Asian art auctions in New York, 2014's Asia Week New York sales totalled an outstanding $56.1m.


The barbed rim dish is comparable with examples in the British Museum, Shanghai Museum and London's Victoria and Albert Museum



The total is "a solid increase on last March" according to the auction house. The five auctions were led by a Yuan dynasty (14th century) rare blue and white barbed rim dish, which topped the Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale at $4.1m on March 18-19.

Sotheby's auction of archaic bronzes saw the Ji Zu Yi Zun, an important wine vessel from the late Shang dynasty (13th-11th century BC), make $1.2m - a 200% increase on its $400,000 high estimate.

Shang dynasty archaic bronze vessel
The Ji Zu Yi Zun vessel is one of only two with the same design



"This was an extraordinary week in New York. Time and time again, we saw multiple bidders - sometimes as many as ten on a single lot - drive prices for the very best Chinese works of art far over the estimates," commented Sotheby's head of Chinese ceramics and works of art, Dr Tao Wang.

The Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art sale was led by Vasudeo S Gaitonde's Painting No. 3, a 1963 piece from the top Indian artist, which sold for $2.5m.


This work was exhibited at one of Gaitonde's earliest shows in New York



"It was an honour to accept the winning bid for our museum-quality Gaitonde which sold for over $2.5 million, a further privilege to be the first South Asian auctioneer to take a bid over $1 million for an Indian work of art," said Priyanka Mathew, vice president of Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art.

However, the most astonishing sale of the week came amid the Fine Classical Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy auction on March 20, which saw Wang Shouren's (1472-1529) poem Parting at the Ye River in cursive script sell with a 2,400% increase on its $80,000 high estimate at $2m.

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