Lot 49. From the Alan and Simone Hartman collection. A limestone fragment of a Buddha head, Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577); 21cm high; 33.6cm high with stand. Sold for US$25,600. © Bonhams 2001-2024

The oval face fragment carved with a serene and benign expression, the broad nose rising to arched brows above downcast eyes with half-closed lids, with small plump lips creased at the corners, the hair depicted with individual tightly curled coils exposing the proper right ear.

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 7 June 2000, lot 25.

Note: A similar example with traces of pigment and gilding in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is published on the museum's website, accession number 2001.422, where the curator noted "This head probably comes from Shandong or Hebei province. Many comparable examples were unearthed from the ruins of temples in Qingzhou, Shandong, in 1996, and in Linzhang, Hebei, in 2012."

Compare the very similar Buddha head unearthed from the pit at the former Longxing Temple, Shandong province, illustrated in the catalog of the exhibition Return of the Buddha: The Qingzhou Discoveries, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2002, pp. 140 and 143, no. 27C.

For another example, see Sotheby's London, 8 December 2022, The Personal Collection of the late Sir Joseph Hotung, Part II, lot 192.

Bonhams. THE ALAN AND SIMONE HARTMAN COLLECTION THE INAUGURAL SALE, New York, 14 December 2023