A monumental 12th-century gilt-copper figure of Manjushri, the Buddhist bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom, sold at Christie's in Hong Kong on 30 October for HK$137.35 million, about US$17.5 million. The price more than doubled the work's HK$60 million low estimate and set a world auction record for a Himalayan gilt-bronze sculpture. The 93-centimetre figure led Awakening Wisdom, a dedicated eight-lot sale of Buddhist art from a private Asian collection, which totalled HK$204.45 million.

The sculpture is a masterpiece of the Newar tradition of the Kathmandu Valley. Manjushri is identified by the Prajnaparamita Sutra resting on a lotus at his shoulder, and the figure's broad planes of gilded copper are animated by finely articulated necklaces, armlets, bracelets and sacred thread. Christie's describes it as one of the most important surviving sculptures of Himalayan art to reach auction in recent years, and notes that comparable early gilt-copper bodhisattvas are held by the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Norton Simon Museum.

The result has also drawn attention to the sculpture's history before it reached the saleroom. Records show it was in the George Ortiz Collection in Geneva by 2002 and later passed through private collections in New York and Asia, while questions remain about its earlier history and how such an important Nepalese work left the country. The timing sharpened the contrast at home: in Kathmandu, photographer Prasant Shrestha's exhibition Stolen Images of Panauti, which opened at Taragaon Next on 29 October and runs to 8 November, documents more than 20 sacred objects taken from the ancient town of Panauti through photographs and archival records.

The sale took place during Hong Kong Asian Art Week, in the year Christie's marks 40 years in Asia. The record underlines the strength of international demand for exceptional Himalayan art, even as debate continues in Nepal about the loss of sacred heritage to the market.