The highest single price posted in the regions during the autumn series os Asian art sales was the £380,000 bid at Duke’s (25% buyer’s premium) in Dorchester for a monumental Sino-Tibetan gilt bronze devotional figure of Tara broadly dated to the Qing period.
Standing 2ft 5in (72cm) high, she is modelled seated on a lotus-leaf base with beaded borders, the face and headdress retaining a large proportion of the original polychrome decoration.
According to the family, this impressive gilt-bronze left Russia after the Revolution and then remained with the family in London. The estimate had been £30,000-50,000.