Auction Guide: 2025 Asia Week New York Sales

Asia Week New York, the annual celebration of Asian art and culture, is just around the corner. Galleries, art dealers, museums, and auction houses across the United States and worldwide will offer opportunities to learn, appreciate, and purchase masterpieces from across the continent. Asia Week New York sales in 2025 will be offered from Bonhams, Christie’s, Doyle, Freeman’s | Hindman, Heritage Auctions, and Sotheby’s. 

Here is a guide to this year’s festivities, key lots, and more. 

Bonhams 

Bonhams marks Asia Week New York this year with four live sales, starting with a collection of Chinese ceramics and snuff bottles, classical and modern Chinese paintings, Indian and Himalayan art, and fine Japanese and Korean art. The offerings continue with several timed sales throughout March. “Asia Week New York is always an exciting time of year and we are thrilled with the strong slate of sales we will present at Bonhams, featuring important and impressive works of art from across the continent,” said Dessa Goddard, Senior VP and US Head of Asian Art, in a press release. 

Notable offerings include a 15th-century gilt copper alloy figure of Mahachakra Vajrapani from Central Tibet (lot #308; estimate: $500,000 – $700,000). This widely-exhibited piece has been in the Zimmerman Family Collection since the mid-1960s. It depicts the Vajrapani bodhisattva with his consort, crushing the Hindu gods Indra and Brahma below. 

Christie’s 

Asian Art Week at Christie’s will feature three live and three online sales throughout March. A sale of Japanese and Korean art leads the series on March 18, 2025, featuring an important Korean moon jar from the Joseon dynasty (lot #333; estimate: $1,800,000 – $2,500,000). This white porcelain piece is draped in a luminous glaze with a recessed base. Considered important Korean cultural items, moon jars are treasured for their historical significance and enduring elegance. 

Christie’s Asia Week New York sales continue with modern and contemporary South Asian art, including works by Maqbool Fida Husain, Sayed Haider Raza, and Akbar Padamsee. A two-day sale of important Chinese furniture and art follows. 

Doyle 

To mark this year’s Asia Week New York, Doyle will host a two-day sale of Asian Works of Art. On March 18 and 19, 2025, collectors will find a selection of fine porcelains, furniture, paintings, and more from China, Japan, and beyond. Among the top lots is a monumental Chinese carved and painted wood Pixiu, or mythical winged lion (lot #99; estimate: $15,000 – $20,000). This detailed Six Dynasties-period piece possibly dates back to the third through sixth centuries CE. It bears traces of pigment and measures 41 inches high. Collectors can also consider a pair of China trade paintings from the estate of Joanne duPont Foster, a variety of fine Chinese carved jades, and assorted porcelain items. 

Freeman’s | Hindman 

Freeman’s | Hindman will join the Asia Week New York celebration with an Asian Works of Art sale on March 21, 2025. This live event offers 172 lots of curated collectibles. The catalog particularly highlights ceramics, jewelry, and textiles from renowned private collections. 

Among the top lots is a rare Yixing peach-form ochre-colored “puzzle cup” with Chen Mingyuan seals (lot #31; estimate: $60,000 – $80,000). A renowned Yixing potter of the Kangxi period, Chen specialized in whimsical floral teapots and scholar’s objects. The offered “puzzle cup” features the figure of Shoulao, the Chinese god of longevity, standing in a peach. This exquisite piece rests on an elaborately-carved wood stand. Other key lots in the sale include a pair of Chinese porcelain ‘dragon’ dishes, antique Chinese gold jewelry, and Indian paintings.

Heritage Auctions 

From Heritage Auctions comes two sales this March. The first– Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Nelkin Collection Part III on March 20, 2025– features a circa 1831 woodblock print of Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave Off Kanagawa (The Great Wave) (lot #78015; estimate: $100,000 – $150,000). The iconic image is dyed with Prussian blue, and the reverse bears instructions on converting the print to a folded fan. When this print was executed in 19th-century Japan, it would not have been considered a masterpiece. Rather, ukiyo-e prints were seen as cheap commodities, fleeting and utilitarian. This lot comes to the market in overall good condition, consistent with its age, and unframed. 

Heritage Auctions’ second Asia Week New York sale, scheduled for March 21, 2025, offers a sweeping catalog of Asian fine and decorative art. Notable lots include a Korean hexagonal vase, a Tibetan gilt bronze figure of a Lama, and a Chinese embroidered dragon summer robe. 

Sotheby’s 

From Sotheby’s comes an Asian art showcase this month, with live and online auctions presented alongside a lecture series. Kicking off the auctions is a Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art sale on March 17, 2025. This event spotlights a masterpiece by Indian painter Jagdish Swaminathan, titled Homage to Solzhenitsyn (Triptych) (lot #17; estimate: $1,000,000 – $2,000,000). It depicts a colorful, exuberant landscape and honors Russian writer and dissident Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. Sotheby’s notes that this major work is new to the market and is among the largest paintings from Swaminathan’s Bird and Mountain series of the 1970s and 80s. 

Highlights from Sotheby’s Chinese Art sale include a rare celadon-glazed Hu-form vase from the Yongzheng period and a rare Huanghuali six-post canopy bed from the 17th century. Indian and Himalayan art collectors can consider a circa 1780 lyrical illustration from the Gita Govinda and several fine Buddha statues. Rounding out the auction house’s Asia Week New York sales are highlights from Paul L. Davidson’s collection of Japanese swords and armor.

Find more details about each of these auctions, including a full list of sale dates, by visiting Asia Week New York’s website. 

Looking for coverage of previous Asia Week New York sales? Check out Auction Daily’s guides from 2023 and 2022.