T
he brilliant gilt-bronze sculptures collected by Jane and Leopold Swergold provide a window into a glorious period of China’s illustrious history, when the Silk Road opened up a channel to foreign influences and enabled the dissemination of Buddhism and its deep artistic traditions into the Middle Kingdom. China would never be the same again.
Each of the twenty-five bronze sculptures in the collection are unique works of art in themselves, endowed with the dynamic elasticity of movement emanating from the sensitivity of the Indian tradition. As a group, they also encapsulate the development, sinicization and maturity of Chinese sculptural art. The Swergold name will, for posterity, be remembered as one of the most important collections of early Chinese Buddhist bronzes, formed by a couple who advanced the understanding of this esoteric field in the West. The collection is remarkable for the prestigious provenances of the sculptures, representing an encyclopedic list of the great names of 20th century Asian art collecting, including, to name a few, Adolphe Stoclet, Christian Humann, Rafi Mottahedeh, Robert Ellsworth and Ananda Coomaraswamy. It is only appropriate that such unparalleled provenance is associated with a collecting area as important as early Chinese statuary.
It demonstrated great vision for an American couple to focus on this wonderful field, and it is Sotheby’s privilege to present this outstanding collection of early Chinese Buddhist art of a quality rivaling the holdings of the most important museum collections.
絲綢之路對於中國吸收外來文化至關重要。通過絲綢之路，佛教及佛教藝術西宗東漸，在中土迅速發展傳播。思沃格伉儷（Jane and Leopold Swergold）之銅鎏金佛像珍藏恰如一扇窗口，邀人一窺中國佛教史的璀璨與輝煌。
所藏之二十五尊佛像，尊尊獨立，氣韻靈動，寶像莊嚴，展現了中國造像藝術在秉承印度傳統的基礎上逐漸漢化之演變、發展與成熟。是思沃格伉儷博學敏求，克盡所能，終集不世之蘊集。所藏之珍皆來源極佳，其中不乏諸多上世紀亞洲藝術領域的重要人物，如 Adolphe Stoclet、Christian Humann、安思遠以及阿南達．庫馬拉斯瓦米等。
伉儷二人目光遠博，品味精卓，所集早期佛教藝術收藏足可與各大博物館館藏相媲美。今蘇富比榮幸備至，呈獻此批藏珍，與世共賞。
