32
LEFT: Mask.
Baule; Côte d’Ivoire.
Wood. H: 22.5 cm.
Marceau Rivière Collection, Paris,
acquired before 1972.
RIGHT: Mask.
Baule-Yaure; Côte d’Ivoire.
Wood. H: 35 cm.
Marceau Rivière Collection, Paris,
acquired before 1984.
Ex Helena Rubinstein New York/Paris/
London; Merton D. Simpson (1928–
2013), New York.
BOTTOM LEFT:
Oracle. Baule; Côte d’Ivoire.
Wood. H: 26 cm.
Marceau Rivière Collection, Paris,
acquired before 1985.
Ex Hans Himmelheber, Heidelberg,
acquired before 1933; Alain de
Monbrison, Paris; Daniel Hourdé, Paris.
BOTTOM:
Marceau Rivière (center) with
Merton Simpson (right) with
Willy and Marthe Mestach.
Rivière’s experience in the fi eld and his close connections
with the major players in the African art market
are very defi nitely the reasons why his collection,
which is particularly strong in the arts of Côte d’Ivoire,
blends instinct, taste, and prestige. If Rivière has
now chosen to disperse his collection, it is so that he
can know its destiny. Sotheby’s is doing all it can to
honor this desire through strong results on June 18
and 19. The marketing efforts that are being made
so potential buyers can familiarize themselves with
the objects in the sale are unprecedented. After having
been presented in London, Hong Kong, Brussels,
Monaco, New York, and Copenhagen, the pieces
will conclude their world tour at 76 rue du Faubourg
Saint-Honoré in Paris with a fi nal public preview from
June 13–18. Even if they can’t attend, collectors and
afi cionados should order a copy of the catalog for this
sale, which is likely to be a milestone event.
BELOW: Reliquary guardian
fi gure. Kota-Mahongwe;
Gabon.
Wood, copper, brass. H: 39 cm.
Marceau Rivière Collection, Paris,
acquired before 1990.
Ex Merton Simpson, New York.
All pieces on this page will be offered
at Sotheby’s, Paris, on June 18 and 19,
2019. Estimates on request.
ART IN MOTION
Marceau Rivière Collection
PARIS—The department of Africa and Oceania
at Sotheby’s, Paris, is anticipating the arrival
of June 18 and 19, 2019, when it will offer
works from one of the most important collections
of African art still in private hands. This
is the collection of Marceau Rivière—an erudite
aficionado and dealer, and an expert in Sub-Saharan
African art whose discretion is proportional to the
splendor of this collection of 250 major pieces, many
of which have appeared in important publications
and exhibitions.
The story of the Marceau Rivière Collection goes
back more than fi fty years and is a refl ection of a
life passionately devoted to the art of Africa. The
fi rst mask that Rivière acquired, at the age of eleven,
attests to the depth and fascination for Africa that
developed in his childhood through the reading of
Tarzan books and colonial and missionary accounts
of the time. In 1957, Rivière was called to serve in
Algeria, and Africa became a concrete reality for him.
He was able to travel extensively as a member of the
camel cavalry corps, and even further, thanks to his
acquaintance with explorer Francis Mazière. After
his experiences in the army came his years as an engineer.
For nearly twenty years, Rivière roamed the
African continent, and Chad in particular, where he
developed in-depth knowledge of the arts and customs
of the villages he had the opportunity to visit.
These were also the years that his collecting activities
properly speaking got started, as did his encounters
in Africa with major fi gures of the African art market
like Paul Delcourt, André Blandin, Philippe Guimiot,
Pierre Dartevelle, and Jacques Kerchache.
These “African” friendships complemented an
Africa-oriented social circle in Europe and the United
States, of which people like Merton Simpson,
Maurice Nicaud, Samir Borro, Willy Mestach, René
Rasmussen, and many others were a part. At the beginning
of the 1980s, Rivière decided to become a
dealer himself on the advice of a friend who
had pointed out to him that doing so would
mean that a larger number of objects could
pass through his hands. His unquenchable
thirst for discovery led to the opening of his
Galerie Sao on rue Saint-Benoit in Paris and
to the growth and enrichment of his personal
collection through acquisitions made from colleagues
and at auctions.