This November, Sotheby’s Chinese Art auction in Hong Kong is honoured to present two monumental early Ming Imperial bronze masterpieces from the Bodhimanda Foundation, being sold to raise funds to secure a permanent museum display for its Buddhist art collection. The Bodhimanda Collection encompasses the full breadth of the Tibetan ritual tradition. These two magnificent bronzes, the largest and most important Chinese works of art in the collection, encapsulate the extent to which the greatest emperors of the early Ming dynasty fell under the spell of Vajrayana Buddhism.

The Panjarnata Mahakala is by far the largest early Ming reign-marked bronze in private hands, measuring 72 cm. high, outranked only by two Yongle bodhisattvas, one at Qinghai Provincial Museum, the other at the Cernuschi Museum in Paris. The sheer power and adamantine casting of the protector deity marks it out as one of the greatest Imperial Tibeto-Chinese bronzes of the early Ming dynasty. The Kapaladhara Hevajra is also of exceptional size, measuring 67.5 cm. high, and coupled with its extraordinary tour-de-force of quality is unparalleled in any museum or private collection.

The Chinese Art sale takes place on 26 November 2024 at Sotheby’s Maison in Hong Kong.