Antique Buddha Statues Gallery Tour

Welcome to this first live view of our gallery. My name is Peter, I'm the owner, and within the next half hour I will show you around. Our collection was built in the last 25 years, and we've built it through our many travels through Asia. The collection contains over 5000 statues, mainly from Burma, Myanmar, but also from Nepal, India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and many other Asian countries. Since five years we are located in this former Catholic church building that we have converted into a gallery. The church was not used anymore, so we felt very lucky to be able to establish our gallery here. We feel that the statues are in a wonderful place here. It's a nice place to show them. If you have any questions during this live show, then please let me know. If you would like to see more information about a particular Buddha, then please drop a line. Here is one of my most wonderful and special Buddhas. It's an 18th century Burmese Buddha from the Shan state. It's quite large, I would guess 1 meter 20, in very good condition, with a beautiful face. On the altar in the church, on the left side of the altar, you can see an original wooden Bagan Buddha from Burma. It's from the 12th or 13th century. It has a wonderful expression. Here you can see a collection of Nepali statues. There is a big Maitreya Buddha in the back. All statues are fire gilded. Not antique, but very high quality. If you have any questions, then please let me know. Or if there is more information that you would like to hear about any particular Buddha. Now let me show you my own private collection of most special bronze Buddhas that I've collected during my lifetime. Not all are on the website, but I'm adding a few pieces every day. Gaurav asked what is the most special statue in my collection. Here you can see a 15th century Burmese Buddha. It's one of my most special statues. It has a wonderful expression and it's still in perfect condition. As you can imagine, it's not easy to find such an early Buddha with a fragile crown, which is still in perfect condition. Besides here in the back, it's very early. I think it's Bagan Buddha, more than 1000 years old. Very nice. Here is another bronze Bagan Buddha, which I believe silver is mixed in the bronze. But there is many more. Here is a temple shrine, which is over two meters large. It's a bit difficult to see, but it's very, very nice. Very good condition. It comes from a monastery in the Xi'an state in Burma. Gold plated with beautiful details. Here an overview of the complete gallery. I believe our collection contains now over 5000 statues. During the last 20-25 years, we have tried to improve the level of the collection. So I have more and more original and antique statues these days, which is now very difficult to find. This is a Burmese Mandalay Buddha, 19th century, a pair of monks. A very large 17th or 18th century Burmese Buddha from Alabaster. It's over one meter high. A bronze Buddha in a shrine. An 18th century Burmese Lekhawar Buddha. It's hollow inside. 19th century wooden Lotus Buddha. Our collection is still growing and we are finding more and more statues in Europe and United States, because a lot of antiques were already sold from out of Asia. So we have bought, for example, this bronze Buddha from the 18th century in Burma. We bought it from a private collection in Germany. It will be on the website tomorrow. So if you're interested, then you can take a look. It was once fully gilded, but since they found silver, probably it's silver mixed in the alloy, they decided to, I can show you on the back side, they decided to remove the gilding so that you can see the bronze better. This was the original color. It's very special. It almost cannot be found in Asia anymore these days. Has two rings and inscriptions in the base. Very special. Please let me know if you have any questions, then I can guide you. I will now show you our collection of 19th century Thai Buddhas, which you can see in the back. I think it are over 50 pieces. Ratanakosin Buddhas, 19th century, bronze. We bought an entire collection in Switzerland last year. This is one of my oldest wooden Buddha statues, 13th century from Burma. No repairs, still in very good condition. Here you can see a number of smaller statues. Most of them come from the same monastery in the Xi'an state of Burma. Some of them still have inscriptions on the back. You can see this is probably the name of the family who once donated the Buddha to the monastery. Here a very nice Japanese Buddha. Edo period. It's called a triad because it has two figures on the left and right as well. Very good condition. Srijan, you asked if I can show me my best Nepali Buddha statue. Yeah, it's actually in my office, so I cannot show it from here, but it's a 14th century Nepali Buddha. If you can drop me a line, I will send the pictures to you after this live show is finished. Here you can see a very large Burmese Mandalay Buddha, 19th century. It's about 1 meter 30. It was very damaged, but I restored it last week. The base was eaten by termites, but it is now back in very good condition. Here another large antique Japanese Buddha. Very good condition. Just listed on the website since a few weeks. You can find most of the statues on my website. I will share the link here, burmeseart.com, but a lot of statues are not yet shown on the website as well. If there is anything that you are searching for or looking for, then please let me know. This is a 19th century Thai, from Thailand, Ratanakosin Buddha. It's very special because it's large. It's seated in a so-called European seat, so a special base has to be created. It has a beautiful face. It was offered in Christie's auction house a few years ago, but the owner decided not to sell it because probably she liked it so much. Gaurav asked to show my most expensive, our most expensive Buddha statue. This is a difficult question. Sometimes for the very valuable statues, I find it very difficult to price them. The bronze statue, the big bronze silver statue that I showed you a moment ago, is worth, I think, surely over €100,000. It will be listed on the website tomorrow. To price a Buddha statue, it's quite difficult. I feel that the prices of the most special statues are increasing the fastest. Besides very expensive and high-value statues, we also have quite a large range of lower-priced statues in very high quality. For example, here a few smaller, very high-quality Nepali Buddha statues starting from €100 or €150. All are fire-gilded. This is a statue of Manjushri. Here a large alabaster Buddha head. I bought it from a private collection in Denmark a few months ago. It's more than real size. It's already on the website. I would like to thank you for watching. If you have any questions, then you can always drop me a line or send me an email or look at my website burmeseart.com. I hope to see you again next time in our next live view. Thank you. Bye-bye.