Sotheby’s Hong Kong Curiosities auction spans space and time

Sotheby’s previewed the items in it Hong Kong Curiosities III auction on Thursday, March 31.

The word eclectic barely describes the seemingly random temporal and geographical range of sources.

The auction features a dinosaur skull, a bust of the Buddhist saint Avalokitesvara, a stainless-steel corset, a several-hundred-year-old sculpture from Mali’s Bamana people, Siberian mammoth-tusk snow goggles, a Greek marble of Aphrodite, a Chinese sculpture of a famous rock, an Italian wax anatomical model of a head from the 18th century …

Almost literally every space and time of planet Earth has contributed to the collection.

The allosaurus skull is expected to fetch $6.4 million, the Bamana figurine half a million, and the Buddhist saint, $3 million.

“The fun about this sale is that all of these objects are taken out of their context and viewed in relationship to others,” said Sotheby’s Asia Deputy Chairman Nicholas Chow. “People can make their own stories, their own fantasies, and how to present them together.”

The auction will take place on Tuesday, April 4.