The Richard C. Blum And Senator Dianne Feinstein Collection Of Himalayan Art To Be Offered At Bonhams New York

New York – Bonhams will present a selection of Himalayan sculpture and painting from the collection of Richard C. Blum and Senator Dianne Feinstein this March.Accumulated over a 30-year period, the 42 works on offer worth more than $3 million from the prominent couple’s collection are representative of the breadth and diversity of their taste, spanning 800 years from Tibet, Nepal, and Greater China. The Richard C. Blum and Senator Dianne Feinstein Collection of Himalayan Art will be offered on March 20 at Bonhams New York during Asia Week New York.

The San Francisco couple, Dianne Feinstein (1933-2023) and Richard C. Blum (1935-2022), were married in 1980 and are widely known for their illustrious careers in politics and finance. An American politician, Feinstein was the first female mayor of San Francisco and a United States Senator from 1992 until her death in 2023. Blum was an American private-equity investor and the Chairman and President of Blum Capital. A longtime advocate for human rights in the Himalayas, he founded the American Himalayan Foundation in 1981 and the Blum Center for Developing Economies at the University of California, Berkeley. He also served as Co-Chairman of the World Conference on Religion and Peace. The couple were held in great esteem for their philanthropy as well as their close connection and support for the Tibetan diaspora which was particularly informative when establishing their collection. The connections they made in the region led to the acquisition of an important group of thangkas from the brother of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama that are of a quality and type that never appear in the market. Besides a small group of sculpture, the collection focused on the rich painting traditions of the Himalayas, ranging from the 13th to 19th centuries.  Attention was paid to portraiture of important historical figures from various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as peaceful and wrathful deities.

“The Richard C. Blum and Senator Dianne Feinstein Collection of Himalayan Art is a true testament to the couple’s discerning eye and attention to detail when adding to their collection for over 30 years. The collection was integral to their lives, present almost without exception in every room of their homes and offices. We are honored to be entrusted with bringing it to auction,” said Edward Wilkinson, Bonhams’ Global Head of Indian, Himalayan, and Southeast Asian Art.

Highlights of the collection include:

• A late 12th/early 13th century portrait thangka of an Important Buddhist Teacher, estimated at US$400,000 – 600,000. This thangka is one of the largest and most important early lama portraits from the Kadampa school in private hands.

• A 16^th century copper inlaid copper alloy portrait of Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lundrup, Tibet, estimated at US$400,000 – 600,000. A massive and beautifully cast portrait of the great abbot of Mustang, a Buddhist enclave in modern-day Nepal. The bronze is closely related to a sculpture of Maitreya held in the Cleveland Museum of Art, the two likely coming from the same atelier.
  
• A paubha of a Vaishnavite temple, Nepal, dated 1716, estimated at US$300,000 – 500,000. One of the largest and most impressive paubhas (paintings) from Nepal, acquired from the famed Jucker Collection.

• A thangka of Vajrapani, Chengde, Qianlong period (1736-95), estimated at US$80,000 – 120,000. Part of an important set likely to have been an imperial commission for Xumifusho Temple in Chengde, Western China. This is one of seven known paintings from the set. Another is in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.
  
• A 14th century thangka of Akshobya, Tibet, estimated at US$60,000 – 80,000. An important painting from the formative period of Tibetan art which represents one of the Five Tathagatas (Presiding Buddhas) and is preserved in excellent condition.