Christie’s has announced the single owner sale of Fine Chinese Art from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, which will be offered on March 18, 2009. This is the first of a series of auctions consigned by the Arthur M. Sackler Collections Trust of its part of the large collection amassed over many decades by the internationally well-known collector Arthur M. Sackler. The sale is expected to realize in the region of $4 million. Following the precedent set by the spectacular results of the December 1994 sale of Important Works of Art from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, which realized an astonishing $4.9 million at that early date, Christie’s will now offer more of this well-known and exceptionally fine collection of Chinese classical paintings, archaic jades, bronze vessels, Tang and Song ceramics, and Buddhist sculpture, to Ming frescoes and classical furniture.

The sale features more than 150 works of art representing multiple periods and styles, including a fine group of archaic jades, bronze vessels, ceramics, weapons and classical paintings from all periods of Chinese culture. Leading the sale is an important set of four hanging scrolls of Birds and Ducks, painted by Bada Shanren (Zhu Da) (estimate: $300,000-500,000) and an exceptional Cizhou sgraffiato meiping vase with peonies of the Northern Song Dynasty (estimate: $120,000-180,000). Additional highlights include a fine selection of inlaid weapons, ritual bronze vessels, and archaic jade blades and ritual implements including a Northwest China, Qijia culture, green jade Bi disc.

Posted: 10|3|08 at 10:24 am. Filed under: US News.