Hammer comes down at £2.6k on bronze Siva at Newbury auction house

A 20th-century monumental bronze figure of Siva Nataraja, from Tamil Nadu, South India, has been bought at auction by Newbury resident Harri Earthy and her husband, who have acquired the piece for the Hindu/yoga temple that they are opening in Newbury.

The 138cm-high piece, on a lotus base and featuring the four-armed Hindu deity dancing on the demon Apasmara, within a fiery circular aureole, was given a guide price of £500 to £1,000, but the hammer finally came down at £2,600, at Dreweatts recent sale of Chinese Ceramics &Works of Art and Japanese, Islamic and Indian Ceramics & Works of Art.

Siva’s role as creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe conveys the Indian conception of the never-ending cycle of time.

Siva’s dance is set within a flaming halo.