BELOW: Female statue, deble. Senufo, Côte d’Ivoire. Wood. H: 96.7 cm. Collected by Emil Storrer, c. 1950. Ex Werner Muensterberger, New York; William Rubin, New York; Sotheby’s New York, May 15, 1991; Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Fernandez; Armand Arman, New York; Alain de Monbrison, Paris; Myron Kunin, Minneapolis. To be offered at Sotheby’s, New York, on November 14, 2014. Estimate on request. Mask. Yaure, Côte d’Ivoire. Est.: 350,000–450,000 euros. To be offered by Sotheby’s, Paris. 38 LEFT: Figural treasure box. Maori, New Zealand. Wood. H: 15.2 cm. Ex Kenneth A. Webster, London; Christie’s London, July 3, 1990; Myron Kunin, Minneapolis. To be offered at Sotheby’s, New York, on November 14, 2014. Est. $150,000–250,000. IN PURSUIT OF BEAUTY New York City—Myron Kunin dedicated his life to beauty, both as a businessman and as an art collector. From his family’s modest business in Minnesota, he built Regis Corporation, today a Fortune 1000 company that encompasses more than 10,000 hair salons worldwide and numerous brands such as Vidal Sassoon and Jean Louis David. Similar to Helena Rubinstein, another selfmade tycoon in the beauty industry, Kunin built a worldrenowned art collection focused on major works of outstanding quality. The refinement of his eye was legendary and he was interested in multiple fine art fields, including African art and American, European Old Master, and Russian paintings. He acquired best-of-type examples in all of these categories. A true connoisseur, Kunin was well known in auction rooms and galleries in America and Europe for his relentless zeal as he sought iconic, top-quality artworks. He was also a dedicated chairman and life trustee of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and a longtime patron of the Walker Art Center, the Northern Clay Center, and the University of Minnesota’s Regis Center for the Arts. A modest man, Kunin never used his own name when loaning to museum exhibitions but discreetly designated the artworks with the name of his holding entity, “Curtis Galleries.” Though without any formal education in art, Kunin instinctively applied the same strategic yet enthusiastic approaches he used in business to his forty-year quest for great works of art. The collection of African art that he formed was among the world’s finest in private hands. Particularly strong in works of great refinement and classical beauty originating from Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, and the Congo, it also includes works from more expressive styles such as those of Cameroon and East Africa. The unifying element of the collection is superb quality, and many of the objects have been widely exhibited and extensively published. Many are icons within their respective genres, though Kunin trusted his eye enough to also pursue RIGHT: Double caryatid stool. Songye, DR Congo. Wood. H: 61.5 cm. Ex Georges Vidal, Paris (reportedly); Merton D. Simpson, New York; Marc and Denyse Ginzberg, New York; Lance and Roberta Entwistle, London; Myron Kunin, Minneapolis. To be offered at Sotheby’s, New York, on November 14, 2014. Est. $300,000–500,000 pieces of unrecognized significance. Prominent in the collection is a beautiful and abstract Senufo female statue (deble) from Côte d’Ivoire, formerly in the William Rubin Collection and the first African sculpture to sell at auction for more than one million dollars when it was offered in 1991. Other familiar highlights include the Kuyu head from the William Brill Collection; the Janus Songye figure from the Allan Stone Collection; the Ngbaka ancestor figure from the Chaim Gross Collection; the Yombe maternity from the Robert Rubin Collection; the Yoruba shango staff and the Vuvi mask from the Hubert Goldet Collection; the Djennenke figure from the Charles Ratton Collection; and the Luba neckrest from the Mia and Loed van Bussel Collection. Sadly, Kunin left us in late October of 2013 at age eighty-five. Arguably the most important group of African art objects ever to be offered at auction on the American market, the Myron Kunin Collection will be sold at Sotheby’s, New York, on November 14, 2014. ART in motion LEFT: Maternity Group. Kongo-Yombe, DR Congo. Wood, metal. H: 27.9 cm. Reportedly collected in the Sundi-Lukula chiefdom, Mayumbe Territory, Zaire, 1938–39. Ex Philippe Guimiot, Brussels; Robert Rubin, New York; Sotheby's New York, The Robert Rubin Collection of African Art, May 13, 2011; Myron Kunin, Minneapolis. To be offered at Sotheby’s, New York, on November 14, 2014. Est. $1.5–2 million. RIGHT: Myron Kunin, New York, circa 1975. Photo © Kevin Horan. Courtesy of Sotheby’s, New York.
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