NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announces Asian Art Week: a series of auctions, viewings and events, from September 13-16. This season includes eight sales featuring over 900 lots, drawing together an extraordinary breadth of works from every category of Asian Art and is led by one of the finest collections of classical Chinese furniture to appear at auction, as well as Chinese ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gandharan sculpture, Nepalese bronzes, modern Chinese and South Asian paintings and more.

In conjunction with the sales, Christie’s will host a day of gallery talks and lectures on September 10th and 11th, featuring guest speakers and prominent scholars. In addition, Christie’s will display Zao Wou-ki and Abstract Expressionism, a private sale exhibition at Christie’s New York Rockefeller Galleries from August 27 to September 14.

ASIAN ART WEEK | AUCTION OVERVIEW:

Fine Chinese Paintings 13 September | New York
Christie’s sale of Fine Chinese Paintings features 93 classical, modern, and contemporary works all from North American collections. Leading the sale and the cover lot is Yuan Yao’s Spring Mountains, dated 1755 (estimate: $450,000-650,000). Additional highlights include Zhang Daqian’s (1899-1983) Bird on Branch (estimate: $70,000-100,000), Pu Ru’s (1896-1963) Gibbons Playing (estimate: $70,000-120,000), Fang Zhaolin’s (1914-2006) Vermillion Landscape (estimate: $15,000-20,000), and Huang Junshi’s (Kwan S. Wong, born 1934) Calligraphy (estimate: $1,5003,000).

Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art 13 September | New York
Christie’s sale of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Works of Art will present nearly 90 carefully chosen lots featuring an array of fine bronzes and sculptures from Gandhara, India, the Himalayas, and Southeast Asia. Highlights include a 13th century important gilt bronze figure of Vasudhara from Nepal and a monumental gray schist figure of a bodhisattva of the 2nd/ 3rd century.

South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art 14 September | New York
South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art comprises over 100 lots representing the rich artistic styles of the Indian subcontinent. Paintings by leading modern masters, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, Francis Newton Souza, Maqbool Fida Husain, George Keyt, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Jagdish Swaminathan and Jehangir Sabavala, alongside contemporary stars Bharti Kher, Shilpa Gupta, A. Balasubramaniam and Ranjani Shettar are included in the sale. Also included is a tribute to three leading masters who passed away this year, Jeram Patel, K.G. Subramanyan and Syed Haider Raza, with significant works by each offered. In conclusion, the auction will feature a selection of 10 works donated by artists and patrons with the entire proceed raised from the sale of these lots to benefit the Germination Project, Philadelphia.

The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles: Part III
14 September | New York
The third sale dedicated to The Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles features a broad range of fine and rare bottles in a wide range of materials, including glass, agate, porcelain, lacquer and jade. Following the success of the first two sales, in September 2015 and March 2016, Part III will be sold without reserve, offering beginning and experienced collectors an exciting opportunity to obtain a snuff bottle from this renowned collection.

The Classic Age Of Chinese Ceramics: The Linyushanren Collection, Part II 15 September | New York
The Classic Age of Chinese Ceramics: The Linyushanren Collection, Part ll, is the second of a three-part sale series from an important private Japanese collection. The sale features 28 lots from the Five Dynasties period (10th century) to the Yuan/early Ming period (14th -15th century), with a focus on classic and elegant Song ceramics. The Linyushanren collection emphasizes works with rarity, superb quality, and distinguished provenance, and includes outstanding examples from the most notable kilns, including Ding, Jun, Longquan and Jizhou.

Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art 15 September | New York
In the nearly 140 years since its first acquisition of Chinese ceramics, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has become one of the world’s great centers for the preservation and study of Asian art. In September, a number of fine Chinese ceramics from its collection will be sold by Christie’s to benefit the Met’s Acquisitions Fund. The group of over 400 lots dating from the Song to the Qing dynasty, offers a fascinating insight into the history of Chinese ceramics in America from the end of the 19th century through the mid-20th century. The selection represents a broad range of categories, including Song-dynasty Jun wares, blue-and-white porcelains from the Ming and Qing dynasties, and domestic and export wares from the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. Highlights include a large group of porcelains from the museum’s first major acquisition in 1879 of Asian art from the collection of Samuel Putnam Avery, an early trustee; and refined Kangxi peachbloom-glazed scholar’s vessels from the mid-20th-century collection of Mary Stillman Harkness, wife of Standard Oil heir Edward Stephen Harkness. Reflecting the tradition of cultural and civic patronage that has shaped The Met’s collection, other collectors associated with the sale include philanthropists Mary Clark Thompson, wife of banker Frederick Ferris Thompson, and John D. Rockefeller Jr., financier and son of legendary Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller Sr. The live sale will be followed by ‘Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’ online auction, 13 – 22 September.

The Flacks Family Collection: A Very Personal Selection 16 September | New York
Christie’s New York will present The Flacks Family Collection: A Very Personal Selection, a group of 46 lots from the collection of Marcus and Debbie Flacks. Since 1995, the couple have established their gallery, MD Flacks, Ltd., as one of the preeminent sources for classical Chinese furniture, scholars objects, and contemporary Asian paintings. The works selected for sale in September, mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties, exhibit a refined and restrained aesthetic, balancing luxurious materials with simple forms and traditional construction that is characteristic of the Chinese literati ideal. The selection represents a diverse mix of furniture, scholar’s rocks and desk accoutrement, as well as contemporary Asian paintings. Among the highlights is an extremely rare pair of 17th century huanghuali and spotted bamboo scholar’s cabinets; perhaps the only known pair in existence, each cabinet is elegantly constructed with 114 strips of spotted bamboo, resulting in a mirage-like mottled surface that is made only more attractive upon closer inspection. Also among the top works of the sale is Liu Dan’s Far-off Journey, painted in 2006 for Marcus Flacks, who holds a close relationship with the artist. Far-off Journey explores an unused element from an earlier project, the massive Ink Handscroll, now at The San Diego Museum of Art.

Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art 16 September | New York
Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art will be held on September 16 and comprises approximately 180 lots, representing works from a variety of collecting categories, including Imperial porcelain, translucent jade carvings, Buddhist sculptures, and classical Chinese furniture. Highlights include a superb pair of Jiaqing mark-and-period (1796-1820) yellow-ground famille rose baluster vases, a pair of imperial bronze tripod censers and covers bearing Qianlong six-character cast seal marks and of the period (1736-1795), a rare group of three red pottery figures of female polo players from the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907), and an exceptional huanghuali recessed-leg wine table.