The next three days are going to be a whirlwind of sales in New York for the fall edition of Asia Week, with collectors from all over the world descending on the city to enhance their collections of Asian art. ARTINFO surveyed the offerings at the major auction houses, picking out some of the week's highlights. 

CHRISTIE'S 

Christie's sales kicks off on Tuesday with an auction of South Asian modern and contemporary art, featuring notable works by the late artist Maqbool Fida Husain, who died in June. Many of the M.F. Husain paintings, as well as works by other artists being offered, come from the Keehn Family Collection. The leading lot of the sale is Husain's "Sprinkling Horses" (no date provided), which is estimated to fetch around $1 million.

On Wednesday, Christie's is presenting two sessions, a morning auction of Indian and Southeast Asian art and an afternoon sale of Japanese and Korean art. A Nepalese gilt-bronze Buddha figure modeled in the Newari style and dating from the 14th century will lead the first sale, estimated to fetch $400,000-600,000. The main attraction of the afternoon offerings will be five woodcuts (sold separately) of Kabuki play actors by Toshusai Sharuku, who only made 82 such portraits in his lifetime. The most famous of his portraits, "The Actor Otani Oniji III as Edobbei in Kabuki Play Koi Nyobo Somewake Tazuna," will be hitting the auction block with an estimate of $600,000-800,000.

Thursday will bring a private collection sale, titled "A Connoisseur's Vision: Property from the Xu Hanqing Collection." Xu Hanqing became the chief of the department of justice at just 17 during the Qing dynasty, but switched to banking when the regime fell in 1911. Throughout his life he collected calligraphy, jade, and various scholar's objects, and this collection includes such marvels as a 17th-century brush pot carved with a dramatic wilderness setting, estimated between $300,000 and $500,000.

Later in the day, a single-collector sale of jade carvings from an unnamed European collection comprising just 36 lots will take place, offering jade objects in several different colors — white, green, and gray. The sale is led by a white jade archaistic vase and cover dating from the Qianlong/Jiaqing period (1736-1820), carrying an estimate of $750,000-1 million.

Thursday is also the first day of a two-part sale of Chinese artworks, which will continue through Friday. The highlights of the sale are a rare gilt-lacquered bronze figure of Vairocana — an embodiment of Buddha — dating from the 16th century (est. $1-1.5 million), and a Ming-style moonflask with a Qianlong seal mark (est. $500,000-700,000).

SOTHEBY'S

Chinese classical paintings will go under the hammer at Sotheby's on Tuesday — the first sale in this category at auction house for over a decade. Presenting around 80 works, mostly from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), the morning event's star is an eight-leaf album by Dong Qichang. Titled "Running Script Transcription of an Epitaph, Written for Minister Chen Xinyi," the rarity has a pre-sale estimate of $200,000-300,000.

The top lot of the week may very well be found at the Chinese ceramics and works of art auction on Wednesday, which is estimated to bring in $19-28 million in total. Sotheby's will auction off a rare archaic bronze ritual food vessel known as a hu, dating from the late Shang or early western Zhou dynasy (10-11th century, B.C.). The pear-shaped vessel, carved with a mixture of high and low relief and showing a taotie mask (characteristic of the period) on each side, is estimated to sell for $2.5-3.5 million. Another rare bronze food vessel from the Shang dynasty comes with a $1.5-2.5 million estimate. Last September, an online bidder paid $3.3 million for a similar artwork at Christie's, more than doubling the previous record for an Web-based sale at that auction house.

Finally, Sotheby's will take up modern and contemporary Indian and South Asian art on Thursday. M.F. Husain will be represented in this sale, too, alongside the likes of Jagdish Swaminathan, Ravi Varma, and Jamini Roy. S.H. Raza's "Eglise," influenced by the artist's trip to the United States and encounters with Abstract Expressionism in New York, is expected to fetch $300,000-500,000.

BONHAMS

On Tuesday Bonhams will have a pair of sales, a morning session of Himalayan and Indian art from the Peter Sartin collection and then Japanese art in the afternoon. The biggest draws of the Sartin collection are the Tibetan furniture and ritual silver objects, of which a sculpture portraying the 8th-century guru Padmasambhava is expected to fetch $60,000-80,000. At the Japanese art sale, a Haruta-school tosei gusku armor piece is estimated to sell for $60,000-70,000.

DOYLE

Doyle also held an Asian art week sale on Monday. The top lot was a Chinese gilt-bronze bell — which carried a $6,000-9,000 estimate, was sold without a known date, and showed evidence of gilt-wear — sold for $482,500 including buyer's premium.

Auction Schedule:

Sept. 13:
Bonhams - The Peter Sartin Collection of Himalayan and Indian Art and Artifacts, 10 a.m.
Christie's - South Asian Modern and Contemporary Art, 10 a.m.
Sotheby's - Fine Classical Chinese Paintings, 10 a.m.
Bonhams - Fine Japanese Works of Art, 1 p.m.
Christie's - Indian and Southeast Asian Art, 2 p.m.

Sept. 14:
Sotheby's - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 10 a.m. (lots 101-229) and 2 p.m. (lots 230-442)
Christie's - Japanese and Korean Art, 2 p.m.

Sept. 15:
Christie's - Property from the Xu Hanqing Collection, 10 a.m.
Sotheby's - Indian and South Asian Art, 10 a.m.
Christie's - Jade Carvings, 2 p.m.
Christie's - Rare Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Part I, 3:30 p.m. (lots 1101-1267)

Sept. 16:
Christie's - Rare Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Part II, 10 a.m. (lots 1268-1439) and 2 p.m. (lots 1440-1675)