HONG KONG.- An extremely rare work by the celebrated
19th century Javanese artist Raden Sarief Bustaman Saleh will lead
the
sale of Christie’s Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art in
Hong
Kong on 30 May. Titled “Javanese Landscape, with Tigers Listening
to the
Sound of a Travelling Group” (estimate: HK$10,000,000 – 14,000,000
/US$1,282,000 – 1,795,000), this extraordinary work has an
impeccable
provenance dating back to 1849, when the artist gave this
painting to his patron His Highness Ernest II, Duke and ruler of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and brother to Prince Albert, the husband
of Queen
Victoria. Over the next 156 years, the work was with the
Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha family and in a private European collection until 2005.