NEW YORK, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The auction house Sotheby's will start its Asia Week sale series in New York city next week, devoting five of eight auctions solely to Chinese art pieces.
One of the Chinese gilt-bronze pieces that worths noticing is a striding dragon cast in suspended movement. The dragon's elongated sinewy body is raised on four powerful limbs and is trailed by a long curling tail. Its imperious head held high and proud atop a slender S-shaped neck, with a single horn above protruding oval-shaped eyes and a long upturned snout exposing its sharp fangs.
"Despite its skinny sinewy form, it has incredible muscular strength and energy," said Angela McAteer, head of Sotheby's Chinese works of art department in New York, noting that such artistic representation makes the sculpture particularly incredible.
She said that the sculpture is in overall good condition with a lot of the original gilding remains.
The 12.7-centimeter long sculpture dates back to Six Dynasties (222-589) and is estimated at 100,000 U.S. dollars to 150,000 dollars. There are three other similar gilt-bronze dragon sculptures known today, which are in the Harvard Art Museums and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, said McAteer.
The sculpture is one of the 44 lots in the "Junkunc: Arts of Ancient China" auction that will be held on March 19.
The auction house's collection of Chinese painting and calligraphies will be led by a handscroll "Poems on falling flowers in running script" written by Shen Zhou, a Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) painter, calligrapher, and poet. He wrote the poems in the style of Huang Tingjian, artist and poet in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), following the loss of his son.
The handscroll is estimated at 1.2 million dollars to 1.8 million dollars.
The auction will also feature an ink and color painting on silk by Chen Hongshou in Ming Dynasty. The painting depicting lotus and rock was previously in the private collection of Zhang Daqian, and is expected to be sold at a price between 1 million dollars and 1.5 million dollars.
Sotheby's other auctions will feature Chinese jade, ceramics and other works of art.
Over 70 jades ranging from the Song (960-1279) to Qing (1644-1911) dynasties will be offered, including a rare Song-Ming dynasty yellow jade carving of a tapir and a small Song dynasty white and gray jade carving of a hare.
Highlights of the ceramics in Kangxi period (1661-1722) of Qing Dynasty range from a rare and massive famille-verte banquet dish, a fine and large inscribed famille-verte brushpot, to a magnificent and rare rose-verte phoenix rouleau vase.
The auction series have already opened for public exhibition and will take place from March 18 to 23. A total of 1,150 lots spanning 4,000 years will be auctioned. Apart from Chinese art pieces, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian art will also be featured.
Sotheby's is participating in the Asia Week New York this year, a 10-day event that celebrates Asian art and culture in various activities that began on Wednesday.
Now in its 10th edition, Asia Week New York saw 48 international galleries, six auction houses and 16 cultural institutions, offering open galleries, auction sales, lectures and exhibitions.
