Monday, March 24, 2008
Buddha statue emerges from obscurity to sell for over $14 million
Fiction abounds with tales of hidden treasures rediscovered after centuries, or of a little shop boy being discovered to be a great genius, but reality outdid fiction this season in the art world.
The highlights of the season are in Times Square style headlines Buddha in neglected attic sets world record for Asian art; child from a carpet trading family in Kolkata is recognized as the new star of the Indian art firmament, out pricing M.F. Husain or Tyeb Mehta; and 46 New York art institutions and galleries club together to launch Asian Contemporary Art Week in New York March 1524.
First, the amazing find of a 12th century masterpiece, an wooden Buddha, ejected from the temple where it had stood benignly for eight centuries, because of a chauvinistic turn in Japan's history, coming out of its obscurity to fetch over $14 million!
In a sale at Christie's New York on March 18 a wooden statue of the supreme Buddha, scarcely two feet high, which had disappeared from a Japanese temple in 1915 when Shinto replaced Buddhism as Japan's official religion, made a history making comeback.
The wood sculpture of Dainichi Nyorai, the supreme Buddha, attributed to the sculptor Unkei achieved $14,377,000, exceeding by almost 10 times its pre sale estimate of $1,500,000-2,500,000. It set new world auction records including record for Japanese art, and any Asian work of art sold in New York.
To read the article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
The highlights of the season are in Times Square style headlines Buddha in neglected attic sets world record for Asian art; child from a carpet trading family in Kolkata is recognized as the new star of the Indian art firmament, out pricing M.F. Husain or Tyeb Mehta; and 46 New York art institutions and galleries club together to launch Asian Contemporary Art Week in New York March 1524.
First, the amazing find of a 12th century masterpiece, an wooden Buddha, ejected from the temple where it had stood benignly for eight centuries, because of a chauvinistic turn in Japan's history, coming out of its obscurity to fetch over $14 million!
In a sale at Christie's New York on March 18 a wooden statue of the supreme Buddha, scarcely two feet high, which had disappeared from a Japanese temple in 1915 when Shinto replaced Buddhism as Japan's official religion, made a history making comeback.
The wood sculpture of Dainichi Nyorai, the supreme Buddha, attributed to the sculptor Unkei achieved $14,377,000, exceeding by almost 10 times its pre sale estimate of $1,500,000-2,500,000. It set new world auction records including record for Japanese art, and any Asian work of art sold in New York.
To read the article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://www.newsindia-times.com
Labels: Buddha statue, Christie's New York, Dainichi Nyorai Buddha, Mitsukoshi Co Ltd, New York, sale, Times Square style Asian Contemporary Art Week
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