International Online Sale at Sotheby's

ABOVE: Caryatid stool. Hemba; DR Congo.
Wood, metal.

Ex Kerbouc’h Collection; Alain de Monbrison (1994).
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, online from 25 November–
4 December 2020,

est. 200,000–300,000 euros.

The accustomed winter sale of African and Oceanic art by Sotheby’s, Paris, will be held online this year, mirroring the dates of a comparable effort by its sister department at Sotheby’s, New York, under the title Sculpture: Africa, Pacific, Americas.

From November 25–December 4, 2020, aficionados will be able to place their bids on the Sotheby’s website and check at their leisure on whether the lots they are vying for have elicited offers from competing collectors. Anyone who wishes to examine the objects physically, in the conventional manner, will be able to do so by making an appointment to visit the Sotheby’s space at 76 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris and at Sotheby’s headquarters in New York City, where the pieces from each sale will be on display for public viewing from November 26 through the close of the sale.

The carefully prepared sale in Europe will be the first that the new Paris tribal art department’s team, under the direction of Pierre Mollfulleda, with Simon Meynen as expert, Chiara Carboni in London, and Jean Fritts as international consultant, will present. It will feature eighty high-quality lots from several private collections, illustrating the diversity of art from three major areas: Africa, Oceania, and Central America.

One of the sale’s highlights will be a unique Easter Island moai papa, formerly in the Joseph Mueller Collection, subsequently in the Barbier-Mueller Museum, and then in the Rosenthal Collection, which was sold at Sotheby’s in 2010. The purity of line, equilibrium of volume, and finesse of the scarification decoration of a Hemba caryatid from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly in the Kerbouc’h Collection, will undoubtedly attract a great deal of interest, and a Dan stool from Côte d’Ivoire, formerly in the Harley Collection, is also a remarkably refined work. Complementing these major pieces will be a number of lots with lower estimates that will en- courage new interest in collecting, including a delicate Olmec maskette from Mexico, a yipwon charm from Papua New Guinea, and a Malekula spear once owned by Carlo Monzino.

Following the success of the Clyman Collection in June at Sotheby’s, New York, its African and Oceanic art department is presenting its own selection of works that include significant Native American offerings in addition to those from Africa and the Pacific. The sale is led by a remarkable Dzunukwa mask attributed to the Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Willie Seaweed from British Columbia. It finds contrast in an unusually large Maori gable mask from New Zealand. A gold avian-headed pendant from the ancient Diquís culture of Costa Rica is a highlight of the Pre-Columbian offerings.

Both the Paris and New York sales are timed to be presented alongside the auction house’s annual Contemporary Art and Design offerings.

For more information:
www.sothebys.com

ABOVE: Power figure. Kongo; DR Congo.

To be offered by Sotheby’s, New York, online from 25 November–
4 December 2020,
est. 12,000–18,000 dollars.

ABOVE: Standing figure, moai papa. Rapa Nui.
Wood.

Ex Joseph Müller, Soleure; Musée Barbier-Mueller, Geneva; Rosenthal Collection.

To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, online from 25 November–
4 December 2020,

est. 200,000–300,000 euros.

ABOVE: Large gable mask. Maori; New Zealand.

To be offered by Sotheby’s, New York, online from 25 November–
4 December 2020,

est. 70,000–100,000 dollars.