An upcoming sale of Asian Art at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will offer items from the esteemed collection of Jack and Marilyn Belz.
Together they founded the Belz Museum of Asian & Judaic Art, formerly the Peabody Place Museum, in Memphis, Tennessee in 1998.
The auction will feature more than 150 pieces form the collection, which was assembled over the course of decades after the couple began collecting in the 1960s. Having wandered into an Asian Art gallery in Los Angeles in 1968, they were inspired to build what’s believed to be America’s biggest private collection of its kind.
The collection spans everything from jade, furniture and snuff bottles to paintings, scholar’s rocks, textiles and early pottery.
Notable highlights will include a pair of Chinese rosewood day beds valued at $15,000-$20,000; a pair of Chinese painted pottery figures of caparisoned horses estimated at $30,000-$50,000; a set of four 20th century Chinese hardstone mounted lacquer wall panels estimated at $30,000-$50,000; three massive 19th century Chinese Hongmu cabinets valued at $30,000-$50,000; and a Chinese embellished gilt, red and black lacquered floor screen estimated at $15,000-$25,000.
Aside from the single-owner Belz collection, the auction will also include a treasure trove of lots across the categories of Chinese, Japanese, Southeast Asian, Indian and Korean works of art.
Notable pieces will include a pair of Qing Dynasty gilt lacquered wood seal chests valued at $10,000-$20,000; a Chinese embroidered silk dragon robe Jifu, priced at $2,000-$4,000; a Chinese gold mounted pierce carved jadeite brooch estimated at $5,000-$7,000; and a white jade snuff bottle valued at $4,000-$6,000.
The Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Asian Works of Art sale takes place in Chicago on March 21-22.
