Lot 3025. An important and finely painted thangka of Luohan Kanakavatsa, Ming dynasty, 15-16th century. Thangka: 31 1/8 x 19 7/8 in. (79 x 50.5 cm.); Overall: 55 5/8 x 27 9/16 in. (141.3 x 70 cm.). Estimate HKD 4,000,000 - HKD 6,000,000. Price realised HKD 5,250,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2021

The thangka is superbly painted depicting the Luohan Kanakavatsa seated on a rock with a halo surrounding his head, holding a running knot in his hands, accompanied by a monk on the left holding a parcel wrapped in brocade, both gazing at a dwarf on the lower left corner offering a transparent bejeweled vase containing a coral branch, all set in a verdant landscape with rugged mountains rendered in the ‘blue and green’ style, with a blue goat and peony shrubs in the foreground. The thangka is framed with its original brocade mounting.

Provenance: Joachim Schlotterbeck (1926-2007), a well-known painter-collector, Wurzburg, acquired in 1955 from a German diplomat based in China before 1930, by repute.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 may 2021