Auction introduction: The Indian & Himalayan Art auction is led by an important assemblage of Tibetan and Nepalese art from the Zimmerman Family Collection, the preeminent collection of Himalayan art in the United States, a part of which forms the core of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Himalayan holdings. The selection of twelve thangkas and bronzes, extensively published since the 1960s and included in major exhibitions of Himalayan art, is now being dispersed to the market on the occasion of the inaugural Asian Art auctions at the Breuer building. Another highlight of the sale is an important thangka depicting Vajrasana Buddha at Bodh Gaya, created in Tibet in the Nepalese style in the 14th / 15th century. Emanating originally from the collection of George P. Bickford, it has remained in the same New York collection for five decades. The sale also includes superb Tibetan sculpture, notably a large gilt figure of Mahachakra Vajrapani, a selection of Gandharan sculpture highlighted by the collection of Paul Theroux, the celebrated travel writer and novelist, and a strong group of Indian miniature paintings from American private collections.