Asian Art hires logo 15/8/05 8:34 am Page 1 ASIAN ART The newspaper for collectors, dealers, museums and galleries june 2005 £5.00/US$8/€10 The Taj Mahal and the Battle of Air Pollution THE GOVERNMENT OF India buy the more expensive ticket if they courtyard and its cloisters were added announced earlier this year that it is to want to get around the limit. Night subsequently and the complex was restrict the number of daily visitors to viewing is still permitted, but restricted fnally completed in 1653, with the the Taj Mahal in an attempt to to fve nights a month (including full tomb being the central focus of the preserve the 17th-century monument. moon). entire complex of the Taj Mahal. One of the best known buildings in Smog and heavy air pollution has It was inscribed on the World the world, and arguably India’s greatest been yellowing the Taj Mahal for Heritage List in 1983. Although the monument, makes it one of the most- many years and conservationists have Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), which visited tourist attractions in the world. been fghting through the courts to looks after 40 protected monuments, Millions of mostly Indian tourists visit control the levels of pollution in Agra. including three World Heritage Sites, the Taj Mahal every year and their Te Taj faces numerous threats, not Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Fatehpur numbers are increasing steadily, as only from air pollution, but also insects, Sikri, delivered a court ban on the use domestic travel becomes easier. As the and efuents which are deposited on of coal/coke in industries located in crowds have grown over the years, the the rear wall facing the heavily polluted the TTZ, the ruling has failed to halt white marble tomb is subject to more Yamuna River. Years of interventions the increased air pollution in the zone. wear and tear to its now fragile – including using mudpacks to draw Last month, Te Supreme Court infrastructure, which already the stain from the stone – have failed ordered the state government of Uttar undergoes regular cleaning to help to arrest the slow decay of the building. Pradesh to produce a ‘vision document’ prevent the heavily polluted air badly Te mausoleum was built by outlining its plan for protecting this discolouring the stone. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (r 1628- new wonder of the modern world In future, only 40,000 local tourists 1658) in memory of his wife Mumtaz alongside the National Green Tribunal will be allowed to enter the historic Mahal. Commissioning started in which has sought a response from the complex per day and foreign visitors 1631 and construction started in 1632 Archaeological Survey of India on will pay 1,000 rupees (US$16) a day to and was completed in 1648, with the why the TTZ ruling has not had any enter. Indian nationals normally pay mosque, the guest house and the main afect on the pollution problem in Te Taj Mahal, on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra, continues its long battle 40 rupees for entry, but will be able to gateway on the south, the outer regard to the related buildings. against pollution and the fght to control its burgeoning visitor numbers NEWS IN BRIEF Inside J. J. L a l l y & C o. 2 Profile: Korean artist FREER/SACKLER AWARD Kim Guiline oriental art Te Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M Sackler 6 Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Enoura Observatory, Sagami Bay 41 East 57th Street New York, NY 10022 Tel (212) 371-3380 www.jjlally.com Gallery have been awarded a grant of more than US$1 million from the Ministry of Culture, Sports 10 The Royal Asiatic Society and Tourism of the Republic of Korea. During the 12 In the footsteps of St Thomas fve-year programme, two masterworks from the in India National Museum of Korea will be on exhibit, senior 14 Edo-period painting in New York Ancient Chinese Jade scholars will be in residence and the Freer|Sackler’s 16 Power and Beauty in China’s Last Dynasty, in Minneapolis Exhibition and Sale March 15-29, 2018 annual Korean Film Festival and other public programmes will contribute to raising the profle of 18 Dressed to impress: netsuke Korean art and culture on the National Mall. Te frst 20 Incense culture in imperial China, masterwork exhibition will be held in 2019 at the in Paris Freer|Sackler. 22 Asia Week in New York AWNY gallery shows SANJUSANGENDO HALL, KYOTO 24 New York map and essential listings Preservation and repair work has now been completed 26 Asia Week in New York, on all 1,001 statues of 1,000-armed Kannon AWNY gallery shows bodhisattva at Kyoto’s Sanjusangendo Hall, ending a 32 JADA shows 45-year wait. Te preservation and repair work on the 34 New York gallery shows and statues, designated as important cultural properties, museum exhibitions started in 1973, using the Cultural Afairs Agency’s 38 New York auction previews subsidy programme for such properties and national 43 Calligraphy in Kansas treasures. Annually, between 15 and 30 statues were 44 Royal gifts from India in Edinburgh; overhauled, but about 40 per year were repaired Latiff Mohidi, and starting in 2013. Te work mainly involved cleaning Adel Abdessemed in France of dust and preventing gold foil from peeling of the 45 Gallery shows relics, the oldest of which date from the latter years of 46 Listings the Heian Period (794 to 1185). 47 Islamic Arts Diary HAN-DYNASTY MIRROR, JAPAN Next issue Archaeologists in Japan have unearthed a 1,900-year- old Chinese mirror that is not only still intact, but April 2018 well-preserved enough to still show a faint refection. City ofcials in Fukuoka commented that such a Contact us discovery is extremely rare, according to Japanese national newspaper the Asahi Shimbun. See page 2 for details subscribe on asianartnewspaper.com Continued on page 2 A JADE DRAGON PLAQUE FRAGMENT Warring States Period, 5th-4th Century B.C. 3 Length 3 ⁄4 inches (9.3 cm) asianartnewspaper.com Join us @ Asian Art Newspaper Follow us @ AsianArtPaper AAN_Quarter_Jan2018.indd 1 15/2/18 上午11:40 42 New York Auctions / Exhibitions Gilt-bronze fgure were acquired directly from the of Buddha artists by this well-known Taiwan Shakyamuni on a calligrapher (1902-1990) and have lion throne, Tibet, sterling provenance. 14th century, height 32.5 cm, SOTHEBY’S est Saturday at Sotheby’s: $800/1,200,000, Asian Art Sotheby’s Saturday, 24 March, 10am 380 lots, $1,300,000-2,000,000 Tis sale has continued to be very well received, and this time it will proceed without a session break. About three- quarters (300 lots) is devoted to Chinese ceramics and works of art with some furniture (12 lots) and a few textiles (10 Qing-dynasty dragon robes, framed kesi panels and an 18th- century, Qing-dynasty carpet). A small selection of 30 snuf bottles as well as a similar number of jades and hardstone carvings rounds out the Chinese works of art section. One of the earlier pieces of Ming Huang and Yang Guifei Listening to Music, (detail), early sculpture was in an Italian private SOTHEBY’S furniture is an 18th/19th-century, Ming dynasty, circa 1368-1400, ink and light colour on silk, collection in 1976 and sold in these Fine Classical Chinese Qing-dynasty, huanghuali Ming-style Worcester Art Museum rooms in 2004 (est 1,000,000- Paintings and Calligraphy recessed-leg table form stand (est 1,500,000). A very elegant 13th- Friday, 23 March, 10am & 2pm $15/25,000). However, an early 20th- century bronze fgure of Appar from Approximately 235 lots, $7,200,000- century pair of huanghuali horseshoe- DANGEROUS Southern India has a distinguished 10,900,000 back armchairs are likely to be of almost provenance. It was in the collection of Te sale is evenly divided between as much interest simply because LIAISONS Dr JR Belmont, Basel, before 1968, in calligraphy and painting. Over 60 huanghuali is so favoured by Chinese the Pan-Asian Collection, 1968- percent are modern works with collectors (est $10/15,000). 1983, when it was on loan to the numerous works by Zhang Daqian, Te ceramics range in date from REVISITED Denver Art Museum, 1977-1983, Pu Ru, and other major modern Tang dynasty pottery to porcelain and sold at Christie’s New York in artists. Te two top lots are hanging from the Republic Period, with a Tis exhibition revolves allies of An, demanded her 2011 (est $400/600,000). scrolls in ink and colour on paper by majority of Qing porcelain with a few around an early 15th-century death, at which the emperor, Himalayan gilt-bronzes are well late Qing master Wu Changshuo from the von Henneken collection. Chinese handscroll in the now weeping profusely, represented, too. Te star of a group of (1844-1927). One depicts Plum A Qianlong mark and period blue museum’s collection, Ming ordered his chief eunuch to four gilt bronzes from a Swiss private Blossom, the other Pine and and white stemcup with Tibetan Huang and Yang Guifei strangle her with a piece of collection, a 14th-century, gilt-bronze Ganoderma. Each has a ‘Lança’ characters is very attractive Listening to Music. It is a yellow silk. A year later, fgure of Buddha Shakyamuni on a $400/600,000 estimate. A calligraphy (est $15/25,000). about a tragic Chinese love he was allowed to return to lion throne from Tibet was acquired handscroll of poems in cursive script Tis year Sotheby’s has two selling story in which an emperor Chang’an (present-day Xian), in Hong Kong, 1991-1995 (est by the eminent Ming-dynasty exhibitions.Te frst, Luis Chan: Te abandoned his state where he remained as $800,000-1,200,000).