During Asia Week this past March, Christie’s blew away the competition with its auction of 199 works from the collection of Arthur M. Sackler, the Brooklyn-born psychiatrist and medical entrepreneur who spent the better part of a century amassing one of the world’s finest assemblages of Asian art. The Christie’s sale marked the first time a large trove of Sackler-sanctified objects has appeared on the market in 15 years — the bulk remains in the Smithsonian gallery in Washington, D.C., that bears his name.

The Christie’s specialist Joe-Hynn Yang predicted the session would be "the 800-pound gorilla of the season," and he was right: When the doors opened, at 9 a.m. on the 18th, such a crowd poured into Rockefeller Center that the house staff couldn’t register bidders fast enough, and the sale was delayed 20 minutes. That late start may have stoked the coals of anticipation; the session went on to earn $10,872,800, more than double the presale estimate.

The highest-grossing piece was a life-size white marble bodhisattva (est. $300-500,000), which made $1,728,900. "Until June it was on loan at the Met," says Yang, adding that most of the objects offered had been in storage and not in museum collections. Of the top 10 lots, about half were paintings: Birds and Ducks, an exemplary set of four hanging scrolls by the 17th-century artist Bada Shanren, fetched $1,202,500, and a single 16th-century scroll, by Lu Zhi, depicting a scholar beneath rocky cliffs, was catapulted past its estimate of $60,000 to $80,000 by its association with the Qianlong emperor (1736-95) — who had presented it as a gift to a government official — and landed at an astounding $212,500.

In addition, Christie’s raked in some $14,189,500 on 210 non-Sackler Chinese objects offered over two subsequent sessions. The March 18 sale consisted of 75 jades from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 68 of which sold for a total of $2,357,562, with $722,500 generated by a single white-jade brush pot from the Qianlong period (est. $600-800,000). More fresh-to-market pieces came up the following day. A Wucai fish jar from the Jiajing period (1522-66), consigned by the Harvard Art Museum, fell short of its $300,000 low estimate despite an illustrious provenance that includes the collection of Henry James, bringing just $242,500, perhaps because it is missing its top. But other sale highlights outstripped the house’s expectations: The top lot, a blue-and-white porcelain basin from the Yongle period (1403-25), more than tripled its high estimate of $600,000 to bring $2,322,500.

Much to their detriment, the other Asian departments at Christie’s did not abide by the conservatism of the Chinese sessions’ estimates. At the 131-lot Japanese and Korean auction on March 17, headlining Japanese paintings crashed. Cooling Off on a Summer Evening ($800,000-1 million), a rather sluggish undated work by Katsushika Hokusai, usually a sure seller, couldn’t find a buyer; Katsukawa Shunsho’s late 18th-century erotic painting (est. $500-700,000), likewise failed to entice.

Those weak results gave the oft-overshadowed Bonhams a chance to steal the show, which it very nearly did. On March 19, it put on the block 201 objects from the estate of Liza Hyde, a model turned Japanese-art dealer who died, at the age of 85, in December. The sale was especially strong in screens dating from the 16th to the 20th century. Of the 49 on offer, 50 percent made above their high estimates, with a large six-panel one depicting flowers (est. $15-20,000) jumping to $70,150. Bonhams grossed $1,141,438, within striking distance of the $1,742,525 Christie’s made on its Japanese and Korean session.

Sotheby’s, on the other hand, cut the category out of its lineup entirely — and the ax didn’t stop there. The house held only two sessions, half as many as it had in September. At its March 17 auction of Chinese works of art, an unidentified Asian collector bagged the two most expensive lots: a pair of jars decorated with scenes of the eight Taoist immortals crossing the sea (est. $300-400,000), for which he paid $632,500, and a lantern-shaped vase (est. $300-500,000), for $602,500. Both benefited from exceptional provenance — they were consigned by Gordon Getty, son of the late J. Paul. The Getty association was less of a boon for a 19th-century mechanical diorama of a mountain scene. Despite its uniqueness, the mammoth, 541/2-by-77-inch automaton, attracted not a single bid.

More modest works of Chinese art fared well during the handful of lower-profile sessions held by other houses throughout the week. On the 20th, the Beverly Hills-based auction outfit I. M. Chait, which set up shop in its temporary Fifth Avenue headquarters, sold an 18th-century white-jade mountain-shaped carving (est. $125-175,000) for $195,000. And on the 17th, Doyle hammered down several items at prices that, although below the Chait jade’s lofty level, did surpass their high estimates. Among the successes were a pair of 18th-century duck-shaped cloisonné candlesticks ($15-25,000), for which a Japanese buyer paid $56,200.

The week closed out with sales of Indian and Southeast Asian art. Adhering to its less-is-more strategy, Sotheby’s held a single session combining traditional works with modern and contemporary art from the region. The house sold only 54.7 percent by lot, but about 73 percent by value — a rate that Christie’s could not best with either of its auctions on March 19 or 20.

The top traditional lot was a pair of 11th- or 12th-century red manuscript covers intricately painted with scenes of worship (est. $100-120,000), which sold for $110,500.The costliest overall, though, was M. F. Husain’s abstract portrait Untitled (Two Women), from the mid-1970s, which brought $374,500 against an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. Akbar Padamsee also proved popular; his smoky nude from 1960 (est. $200-300,000) made $242,500, and Untitled (Metascape), a lush, abstract embodiment of the five elements, transcended its high estimate to earn $170,500.

Notably absent from the Sotheby’s sale were seven-figure sums and the names often associated with them, such as Subodh Gupta and Tyeb Mehta. Works by Gupta appeared in the auction of modern and contemporary art at Christie’s the following day, but they weren’t among his strongest pieces, which, as the September sales proved, can command several million dollars. Feast for Hundred and Eight Gods 1, 2005, one of the artist’s cooking utensil monuments, left something to be desired. Shaped roughly like a cylindrical cone, it lacks the excitement of his hearts and skulls crafted from kitchen paraphernalia, and the salesroom lost interest at $55,000, just below its low estimate. The consignor of Gupta’s untitled hyperrealist painting of hanging pots from 2004 (est. $200-300,000) was more flexible on the lot’s reserve, letting the painting go for $176,500.

Colorful gouaches by Jamini Roy sold across the board, mostly for under $10,000 — nice prices for the modern Indian master’s depictions of friendly-looking mammals, which were going for as much as $20,000 last fall.

The session’s top price went to a more somber painting by Vasudeo S. Gaitonde. His untitled 1965 canvas (est. $300-500,000), which suggests a ship partially submerged in a vast gray ocean, brought $482,500 — the highest price paid for a work of Indian or South Asian art all week.

Six-figure sums were scarce on the following day, when Christie’s hosted its sale of traditional Indian and Southeast Asian art. The auction began with a session of 21 sculptures and bronzes from the less-than-stellar Star Collection, which brought a total of $883,250. The only item from the group whose hammer price actually exceeded its high estimate was a black stone head of Vishnu, which sold for $43,750 (est. $15-20,000).

As the Star highlights gave way to works from various other collections, bidding was steady. A North American collector sitting in the corner of the salesroom, who declined to be identified, went after a handful of the highly estimated large gray schist figures from the 2nd/3rd centuries. He snagged two, the first for $122,500 and the second for $74,500, but sat out the third, which carried a lower estimate of $30,000. "No hands," he said of the statue’s fatal flaw. "Poor guy. It’s very important to have hands."

Although most of the auctions failed to pull out phenomenal, Sackler-esque performances, confidence in the category of Asian art is not necessarily plummeting. After all, the houses are now burning the candle at both ends when it comes to Asia Week, offering biannual editions in both New York and Hong Kong. This spring’s so-so showing is the logical conclusion of the houses’ expansion in China; as value and volume of lots are rising in the East, they are, by necessity, sinking in the West. 

"Asia Week" originally appeared in the June 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2009 Table of Contents.