Dear Customers, Readers, Friends,

 

This new and laborious newsletter takes me back on the one hand to my old love for ancient art, on the other it is a continuation of my study of the fascinating world of Indian tribal art.
In this “Spring Catalog” you will thus find some Gandharan reliefs I sold to a French collector in the 1990s which I recently bought back from him. One of them in particular means a lot to me, for it illustrates a caravan of people, oxen and camels loaded with goods which testifies to the connections that already existed between East and West as early as two thousand years ago. It is that same route followed by Marco Polo, first called “Silk Route” in 1877 by the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen. This Gandharan frieze is thus a sort of “ante litteram” snapshot of a mythical route that remained unchanged for thousands of years.
The Spring Catalogue continues with an article about some metal statuettes from an inaccessible region of central India called Bastar. These mysterious figures featuring crude and powerful shapes seem to come from an imaginary rather than real world. Besides these two main themes the catalog presents a series of new and unusual works from India and China. Lastly, you will find the section “Collections” of my website updated with 30 new items.
Both article and Catalog are published on the website www.renzofreschi.com ; I will be happy to provide further information if required.

Thanks for your attention and comments, which prompt me to look for ever new suggestions and subjects to be investigated.

Renzo Freschi