ART IN MOTION
24
LEFT: Multi-headed sculpture.
Lega, DR Congo.
Wood. H: 21 cm.
© Sotheby’s/Art Digital Studio.
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, June
13, 2018, est. 250,000–350,000 euros.
RIGHT: Standing fi gure.
Watam village region, Lower
Sepik River, Papua New
Guinea.
Wood. H: 120 cm.
Ex Julius Carlebach, c. 1955; Allan Stone.
© Sotheby’s/Art Digital Studio.
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, June
13, 2018, est. 200,000–300,000 euros.
MIDDLE RIGHT: Head.
Fang, Gabon.
Wood. H: 41 cm.
Ex Paul Guillaume; René Gaffé,
c. 1952.
© Sotheby’s/Art Digital Studio.
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, June
13, 2018, est. 1,000,000–1,500,000
euros.
ABOVE: Pendant. Hungaan,
DR Congo.
Ivory. H: 7 cm.
© Sotheby’s/Art Digital Studio.
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, June
13, 2018, est. 50,000–70,000 euros.
SOTHEBY’S
PARIS—Building on the success of its “various owners”
sale last December that brought in nearly eleven million
euros, Sotheby’s is bringing equally high standards to
its June 13, 2018, sale. The some 100 lots that will be
offered include some truly remarkable artworks. Among
the highlights of the African objects are an extremely
rare eight-headed sculpture from the Lega of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, a fine Grebo mask from
Côte d’Ivoire drawn from a Swedish private collection,
and the Fang head from Gabon from the René Gaffé
Collection that has not been seen on the market since
2001. Majestic by virtue of its scale and its powerful
volumes, this work was included in the Galerie Durand
Ruel show in New York in 1933, prior to being
shown at the legendary African Negro Art exhibition at
MoMA two years later. A rare group of Congo ivories is
also worthy of special mention and is made up of four
hitherto unknown pendants with various origins (Hungaan,
Pende), a particularly beautiful Lega mask, and
an object of a type never seen before —a bowl with ornamental
decoration that suggests its origin is the Kuba
Kingdom.
Nearly half of the lots offered will be from the islands
of Oceania. They include a sumptuous Hawaiian
god stick, the Tabar head that appeared on the cover of
Jacques Kerchache’s 1971 Iles Tabar, and a monumental
Sepik River ancestor fi gure, formerly the property of
Julius Carlebach and more recently in the Allan Stone
Collection. Rounding out the South Seas offerings are a
group of particularly refi ned Sepik River sculptures from
the Van Oosterom Collection, which are all the more
attractive for their very reasonable estimates—all under
5,000 euros.
These affordable artworks are not an isolated case
in this sale. Quite to the contrary, they are part of a
group of some thirty works with which
Sotheby’s is endeavoring to meet demand
for worthwhile objects at entry-level prices.
This is intended to attract new collectors to
the tribal art world. Of course, beauty is not
a function of price, but every little bit helps.
BELOW: God stick, akua
ka’ai. Hawaii.
Wood. H: 43.8 cm.
© Sotheby’s/Art Digital Studio.
To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris, June
13, 2018, est. 400,000–600,000 euros.