Three Auctions at Sotheby's Paris
Ex private collection (acquired in Milan, 1978)
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, 30 November 2021, est. 15,000–20,000 euros.
PARIS—With three sales scheduled, the end of November promises to be a hectic time for the African and Oceanic
Art department at Sotheby’s in Paris. The first sale will be held online from November 22–29, 2021, and
will be a tribute to Jean-Claude Bellier, an expert and inveterate auctioneer at the Hôtel Drouot, who passed
away on March 24, 2021. This sophisticated art lover and great friend of Jacques Kerchache had developed a
special taste for non-European art, and he put together an outstanding collection of works with distinguished
provenances from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
A two-part auction in the Paris sale rooms will be held on November 30, 2021. The first session will feature
some sixty Polynesian works from the Charles-Edouard Duflon collection. This exceptional ensemble includes several major lots, including a sublime Marquesas Islands tiki, a Hawaiian swordfish dagger collected by James Cook, and a number of fine Oceanic clubs. The sale will also feature a set of engravings documenting Cook’s explorations, as well as nineteenth-century paintings relating to the history of the Western discovery of the vast island territory of Polynesia.
The Duflon sale will be followed later that day by a “various owners” sale made up of eighty important lots, including
Louis Carré’s well-known Hemba caryatid stool.
The lots in these three auctions will be on view from November 25–29 in the exhibition spaces at Sotheby’s, 76 and 83 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris.
Collection Jean-Claude Bellier
La Polynésie Découverte : Collection Charles-Edouard Duflon
Arts d’Afrique, d’Océanie et des Amériques
Sotheby's Paris
To be offered by Sotheby’s, online sale from 22–29 November 2021, est. 18,000–25,000 euros.
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, 30 November 2021, est. 120,000–180,000 euros.