Souren Melikian: Art casualties from Tibet to Cambodia find an eager
market
By Souren Melikian
Friday, March 28, 2008
New York: One thing art market actors cannot be accused of is being
squeamish. If anyone should harbor any doubts on that score, the
auctions of "Indian & South-East Asian Art" held on March 19 at
Sotheby's and March 21 at Christie's will have dispelled them.
The title did not really do justice to the contents of the sales.
Indeed, the gilt bronze Buddhist figures that each auction house ran
on the glossy covers of their catalogues indicated that the thrust was
not on India, nor even Southeast Asia, but Tibet. Nepal and Cambodia
were also represented by outstanding works that did not qualify as
Indian either.
By one of those ironies of fate, the Tibetan uprising broke out that
week, stirring up memories of the massive destructions during the
Chinese Cultural Revolution that swept away major architectural
masterpieces in Tibet such as the 15th-century Densatil monastery and
dispersed thousands of religious ritual works of art kept in
monasteries. But if professionals had passing qualms at the thought
that the untoward turmoil might compromise their commercial endeavors,
they need not have worried. On March 19, Tibetan art did splendidly.
Sotheby's star lot, which was also the most problematic because of its
ambitious estimate ($1.5 million to $2.5 million plus the sale charge)
sold against the reserve for $1,385,000, still a large price for this
15th-century gilt copper figure of the seated Buddha. The head and
neck were repeatedly painted until recent times, in keeping with
Buddhist ritual tradition. Hence a sweet, mealy-mouthed expression,
not exactly popular with most collectors.
The catalogue, however, pointed out "the pristine condition of the
statue, with its gilding almost entirely intact" and assured that this
"clearly indicates its highly regarded Tibetan status, where [sic] it
is likely to have been placed in an exalted temple location out of
danger of accidental damage or handling by devotees." Sadly, it was
not out of danger of incidental removal. Were bidders encouraged by
its provenance, the Berti Aschmann Collection which it had entered,
the catalogue said, in 1961? Possibly. The fear of looting committed a
long time ago is somehow not as nagging as that of more recent
pilfering.
Actually, such fears, which are plausible in the case of magnificent
bronzes tumbling onto the market without any reference to provenance
or previous publication, did not affect the sale of some of the most
im****tant pieces seen at Sotheby's.
A group of 15th-century gilt bronze seated figures pur****ting to
****tray four historical lamas thus sprang up out of the blue. Cast at
the same period as part of some set, they were in strikingly good
condition and the Tibetan inscriptions incised on the pedestals named
the lamas. Two of these, from the Sakya order, lived in the 13th and
14th centuries. Shang Koenchog Pel, born around 1250, was highly
regarded by Kubilai Khan (1215-1294), the descendant of Gengis Khan
and founder of the Mongol dynasty that ruled China from 1271 to 1368.
Pel established the Sakya practice of Tantric Buddhist teaching which
he passed on to his disciple Choje Draphupa Sonam Pel (1277-1346). The
disciple's ****trait is a gilt bronze figure of precisely the same
dimension, 32 centimeters, or 12 5/8 inches, high, as the master's
likeness, clearly made as a match.
Objects of veneration in the monastery they once belonged to, the two
****traits respectively sold for $205,000 and $217,000, far above their
estimates.
Yet, through one of those auction quirks that often affect the art of
complex cultures understood by few in the Western world because the
essential keys provided by their language makes them impenetrable, the
next two ****traits did not sell. Both immortalized the memory of
Gyaltshap Kunga Wangchuk (1424-1478), the fourth abbot of the Sakya
order in a famous religious center, the Ngor monastery, and both were
signed by the sculptor, Tsugtor. The stiff estimates, $200,000 to
$300,000, may have acted as deterrents.
Rarest of all, a large bronze bodhisattva of the 11th century bore a
connection to another bodhisattva found in the rubble of the Sakya
shrine at Piyang, not far from the border separating Chinese-held
Tibet from the Tibetan areas incor****ated with India. No provenance
was given here either. Was that also rescued from the ruins of the
Piyang shrine? The "Asian Private" buyer, as Sotheby's release put it,
who paid the $181,000 that the 11th-century bronze cost, will have to
work that out.
Earlier in the sale, works of art from another Buddhist land
devastated by 20th-century events, likewise offered without a
provenance, made one wonder how it is that so few questions are asked
about just how works of art of major im****tance, for which no
government would ever issue an ex****t license, come to tumble on to
the market.
Do the temples of Cambodia, erected by the Khmers at the height of
their culture between the 10th and 13th centuries, ring so few bells?
The admirable sandstone figure of a woman carved in the 11th century
in the style known from Banteay Srei and described as having been
acquired in 1986 was missing its head, very neatly chopped off, and
both feet. It looked suspiciously like those sculptures broken off in
situ. However, that did not harm its commercial performance. It
ascended to $361,000, nearly six times the estimate.
Next came a 12th-century bronze bodhisattva from the Angkor period. No
provenance at all here, no date of acquisition. The 34 centimeter four-
armed statue did not sell as easily. Whether this was due to the high
estimate, $80,000 to $120,000, plus the sale charge, or to angst
caused by the fear of possible problems in some distant future, when
perhaps proof of precise provenance will have to be produced for
transactions to proceed legitimately, is hard to tell. Even so, it
brought $73,000.
The next piece, a 13th-century bronze figure of Ganesha seated on a
pedestal cast in the Bayon style of Angkor Wat, happily exceeded its
high estimate by half, climbing to $52,000. Here, the catalogue noted
"Provenance. Hong Kong Collection, 1980s," implying that it passed
through the Hong Kong trade in those years. Some "provenance."
And that is the story of the entire art market handling sculpture or
objects dug up in Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia or even India, but
less so in the latter case. India, now more powerful, has been able to
tighten the screws on illicit digging.
Two days later, at Christie's, things differed only in nuances. A
Khmer statue of the 11th century in the Baphuon style had surfaced in
the market in 1968, two years before the Unesco cut-off line of 1970,
after which goods of uncertain provenance are deemed less kosher. At
$2.11 million, it now holds the world record for Khmer sculpture. How
nice!
Tibet contributed a fantastic gilt bronze figure of Avalokiteshvara
cast in the 14th century and said to have been in Tokyo by the
mid-1960s. It went for just over $1 million.
Another Avalokiteshvara, cast in the 9th century, did not have that
luck. Despite the pro****tions reminiscent of the Srivijaya culture in
Sri Lanka, the facial features point to a Cham origin. The mysterious
Cham people who survive in communities scattered across Vietnam and
Cambodia adhered to Hinduism and Buddhism in cir***stances that elude
us and later turned to Islam, when it reached the Vietnamese coast via
the maritime route around the 11-12th century. Their distinctive art
points to a strong collective personality. More might be learned about
them if excavations were conducted. That is not going to happen. Few
are concerned about the vanished culture of a minority on its way out.
With every major work projected onto the market by commercial digging,
a ****tion of its past history is lost forever. The rare Cham bronze
which, Christie's assured, came from a "Private English Collection [in
the] 1990s" actually failed to sell as the hammer came down at
$95,000. Thus was historical waste accompanied by commercial failure.
From Tibet to Cambodia, the common treasure of mankind is squandered
at a rate that matches that of melting Antarctica. And business goes
on.
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