Auction 1235 - Alongside art from China, Japan in vogue

In auction 1235 Asian Art at Lempertz, objects from Tibet and Japan were particularly sought after. The highest hammer price of the auction went to an imposing thanghka of the Buddha Amitabha. The 168 by 138 cm piece was pursued by numerous bidders in the room, on the telephones and online, pushing it from the estimate of 50,000 - 70,000 euro up to a high of 541,800 euro, the highest result achieved for Tibetan art by a German auction house this year. This museum-quality example was in the Wallraf Collection for a long time and now moves to the USA.

Japanese woodcut prints from the collection of Michael Müller-Stüler also achieved great results with prints by Hokusai in particular attracting the attention of collectors. ‘The waterwheel at Onden’ rose from 10,000 to 27,720 euro and his ‘View of Mount Fuji’ went from 6000 to sell for 21,420 euro.

The netsuke once again sparked much interest. One particularly dynamic example depicted a shōki catching an oni. Carved from boxwood, the fighting figures unleashed a bidding war that left the estimate of 6000 euro far behind to reach 81,900 euro. A further small-format work which surpassed expectations took the form of a manju netsuke depicting a bat and crescent moon. Instead of 2000 euro, it realised 16,380 euro.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 0221/92 57 29–57.

Jan Bykowski
Press and public relations
info@lempertz.com