Two Exceptional Single-Owner Collections Come to Auction

APOLLO MAGAZINE 

By Susan Moore

Grey schist relief triad of Buddha Shakyamuni with bodhisattvas (c. 3rd/4th century), Gandhara. Christie’s New York ($600,000–$800,000)

Of the late September offering of auctions of private collections, two sales stand out. One presents an exceptional group of museum-quality works of art; the other, exhibits from a former museum. ‘Devotion in Stone: Gandharan Masterpieces from a Private Japanese Collection’, at Christie’s New York on 23 September, offers the first tranche of a selection that includes some of the most celebrated of all Buddhist sculptures from the ancient region of Gandhara, which spans parts of present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. A second sale is scheduled for March 2021. According to the auction house’s specialist Tristan Bruck, the group, which was assembled by an adviser and sold in 1990, is ‘probably the most important ever to come to the market’. [More]