NEW YORK, NY.- Asian Art Week returns to New York, bringing together exceptional museum and private collections that celebrate the enduring appeal of Chinese Works of Art over two live auctions and an online sale. Taken together, these auctions offer a singular opportunity for collectors, with hundreds of lots featuring works of great rarity, quality, and exceptional provenance.

Important Chinese Art Including Ceramics from the Art Institute of Chicago

For more than a century, an exceptional collection of Chinese ceramics have remained in the care of The Art Institute of Chicago, their histories preserved through the vision and generosity of some of the most distinguished American collectors and philanthropists. Many works entered the museum in the early 20th century as landmark gifts and bequests from renowned patrons including Russell Tyson, Henry C. Schwab, Kate Sturges Buckingham and Stanley Herzman, whose collections helped shape one of the world's foremost holdings of Asian art. Today's connoisseurs will now have the opportunity to acquire works from this golden age of collecting including imperial porcelains of impeccable rarity, beauty and provenance. Offered under the title, “Property from The Art Institute of Chicago, Sold to Enhance the Asian Art Collection and Care,” these works include a Yongzheng famille rose 'peach and bat' bowl; a finely enameled Qianlong famille rose bottle vase; an exquisite coral-ground falangcai bowl, alongside celebrated peachbloom wares and rare Ming blue-and-white porcelains. The Arts of Asia Online will also have more than 110 lots from the Art Institute of Chicago collection offered with no reserve.

The Important Chinese Art Including Ceramics from the Art Institute of Chicago auction will also include classical Chinese furniture and scholar's objects from the Shanruoshui Xuan Collection; rare robes from the Collection of Jon Eric Riis; early Chinese works of art from the Max N. Berry Collection; snuff bottles from the J & J Collection; and Kangxi famille verte treasures formerly in the collection of William J. Ruane.





Ritual, Cosmos, and Imperial Splendor: Important Chinese Art from a Private North American Collection

Christie's has organized these works from a distinguished American collection to illustrate three commanding themes in Chinese art. In Ritual, we explore works associated with some of the earliest ceremonial practices in China, including a late Shang dynasty bronze you. Cosmos turns to works that reflect humanity's relationship with the divine and the unseen forces believed to govern the universe, specifically showcasing the development and cross-pollination of Buddhism and Daoism in Chinese history, exemplified by a Xuande mark-and-period Vajrapani created in the imperial workshops for court use. Imperial Splendor highlights the extraordinary artistic achievements of the imperial workshops. A Qianlong mark-and-period underglaze-blue and copper-red vase decorated with three playful Buddhist lions and produced under the supervision of Tang Ying (1682-1756), the celebrated superintendent of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, exemplifies the exceptional quality, elegant proportions, and technical mastery of imperial ceramic production.