28 ALLAN STONE AT SOTHEBY’S New York—On November 15, 2013, Sotheby’s will present The Collection of Allan Stone: African, Oceanic, and Indonesian Art—Volume One, the first of two sales of the tribal art collection of the legendary New York art dealer. A second sale of equal size will be held in November 2014. Sotheby’s believes that this is the most significant African and Oceanic art collection to be offered in New York since the Helena Rubinstein auction in 1966. Many of the works to be offered have been included in publications and museum exhibitions. A small selection from the collection was the subject of the 2011 exhibition Power Incarnate: Allan Stone’s Collection of Sculpture from the Congo at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. Among the highlights of the collection is an exceptional group of Songye power figures and Kongo nail figures from the Democratic Republic of the Congo—two of the most iconic genres of African art. The collection, more than 300 works in all, also features important selections of art from Nigeria, Cameroon, and Mali. Overall the collection is estimated to fetch in excess of $20 million. Allan Stone (1932–2006) started collecting African and Oceanic art while still a law student in the early 1960s. Stone was an early proponent of the movement of postwar art galleries to feature African and Oceanic artworks within the context of their contemporary art exhibitions. Even in the early years of his gallery career, he sought affinities between African and Oceanic art and avantgarde Western artists, juxtaposing paintings by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, and John Graham with expressive traditional sculptures. Stone acquired the tribal pieces to be offered in these two sales over the course of more than forty years, purchasing from auction houses as well as from some of the foremost dealers in the field, including John J. Klejman, New York; Merton D. Simpson, New York; Henri Kamer, Paris; Alain de Monbrison, Paris; and Hélène and Philippe Leloup, Paris. He became one of the most important collectors of his generation and was a frequent bidder at early Parke-Bernet auctions in the 1960s. Three sales in 2011 of works from Stone’s contemporary art collection brought in a total of $68 million. ART in motion ABOVE: “Four horn” community power figure. Songye, Democratic Republic of the Congo. H: 78.7 cm. Estimate upon request. TOP RIGHT: Female figural post. Attie, Côte d’Ivoire. H: 111 cm. Estimate: $120,000–180,000. MIDDLE RIGHT: Nail power figure. Kongo-Yombe, Democratic Republic of the Congo. H: 66 cm. Estimate: $400,000–600,000. RIGHT: Sarcophagus figure. Dayak, Indonesian Borneo. C. AD 1280–1400. (C-14 analysis, ETH Zurich, Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, Dr. Georges Bonani, sample ETH-51530). Height: 89 cm. Estimate: $60,000–90,000. Headdress. Elema, Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea. H: 274 cm. Estimate: $100,000–150,000. All the above to be offered in The Collection of Allan Stone: African, Oceanic and Indonesian Art—Volume One at Sotheby’s, New York, November 15, 2013.
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