ART in motion Below: Statue. Songye, DR Congo. H: 55 cm (70 cm with horn). To be offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, on December 10, 2014. Est: €180,000–250,000. © Sotheby’s France/Art Digital Studio. THE ALEXIS BONEW COLLECTION Paris—The Alexis Bonew Collection was shown in a memorable presentation at Galerie Aveline last September 9–22, and it will be sold by Sotheby’s on December 10. The collection was put together between the late 1960s and 1980 while Bonew was working as an advisor for another important collector, Comte Jean-Jacques de Launoit. The pieces in it together are an homage to the formal refinement and the subtle effects of materials that are the hallmarks of great African art. Bonew was born in Brussels of a Russian father and a German mother and grew up in an intellectual household. At an early age he developed a fascination for Egyptian art, an interest that set the stage years later for the formation of his African art collection. He devoted himself completely to this new passion and developed a particular interest in objects of the Congo, an art that he described as the “absolute incarnation of matter in form.” Bonew collected quietly but resolutely, and the works he surrounded himself with reflect these qualities. They include a powerful Congo nail fetish formerly in the collection of Antwerp taxidermist Jos Walscharts, a Lega muminia mask collected by colonial administrator Raymond Hombert in 1927 and acquired from the latter’s widow in 1970, and a unique Luluwa hemp mortar, formerly in the Henri Lavachery Collection. Sotheby’s will hold a second sale on the same day of property from various owners, which will feature strong offerings of classical African and Oceanic art. Above middle: Alexis Bonew. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s France. Above: Maskette. Lega, DR Congo. Copal. H: 9 cm. To be offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, on December 10, 2014. Est: €10,000–15,000. © Sotheby’s France/Art Digital Studio. Left: Nail fetish, nkisinkonde. Kongo, DR Congo. H: 76 cm. To be offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, on December 10, 2014. Est: €600,000–800,000. © Sotheby’s France/Art Digital Studio. Right: Mask attribued to the Master of Bouaflé. Guro, Côte d’Ivoire. Wood, pigment. H: 39 cm. To be offered at Artcurial, Paris, on December 10, 2014. Est: €100,000–150,000. © Hugues Dubois. Right: Mask, muninia. Lega, DR Congo. Wood. H: 22.5 cm. To be offered at Sotheby’s, Paris, on December 10, 2014. Est: €200,000–300,000. © Sotheby’s France/Art Digital Studio. COLLECTIONS AT AUCTION Paris—We announced in our last issue that Artcurial would hold a sale on December 10 featuring 127 African spoons from the Liuba and Ernesto Wolf Collection, which was put together beginning in the 1950s. These are actually a subgroup within a much larger and multifaceted collection that included antiquities, medieval objects, manuscripts, and old books, as well as modern art, all of which will also be offered by Artcurial at another sale on December 1. The exhaustive spoon collection includes fine and representative examples of virtually all of the styles that developed on the African continent, although it emphasizes examples from traditional Côte d’Ivoire societies such as Dan, Baule, and Guro, which are the most coveted by collectors. Other interesting groups of objects in this sale include twenty combs, formerly the property of a Parisian collector, and several works from the Bourelier Collection, also from Paris. It will feature nineteen works from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Hendrickx, a Brussels couple with a passion for contemporary art as well as a refined interest in tribal art, especially that of the Dogon of Mali. The quality of their fifteen Dogon sculptures that will be offered testifies to their keen aesthetic judgment. All of these works with outstanding provenance, as well as pieces by masters’ hands—including a Guro mask attributed to the Master of Bouaflé—make this a sale that is sure to create a great deal of excitement. Far right: Spoon. Dan, Côte d’Ivoire. Wood. H: 70 cm. Liuba and Ernesto Wolf Collection, Paris. To be offered at Artcurial, Paris, on December, 10, 2014. Est: €70,000–90,000. Right: Mask. Baule, Côte d’Ivoire. To be offered at Artcurial, Paris, on December 10, 2014. Est: €60,000–80,000.
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