New! Video Preview for Sotheby's African and Oceanic Sale

Video Preview for Sotheby's African and Oceanic Auction in Paris !!


Masterpieces of African art are today recognized as being amongst the world's greatest art treasures. The majority was created by anonymous artists who did not sign their work. Concerned with the question of artistic individuality among African sculptors, art historians have attempted to identify the particular characteristics of individual 'master-hands'. Join Marguerite de Sabran, Head of Department, Paris, as she shares the story of this Luba female caryatid stool by the "Master of Buli."


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Sotheby's Oceanic and African Art Sale Earns $8.4 Million

Sotheby’s concluded its June sales of Oceanic and African art in Paris on Wednesday, achieving a total of $8,448,741.

Of the 82 lots on offer, 12 works from the collection of Marsha and John Friede spurred a fierce bidding competition, with many pieces exceeding their estimates. The highest-earning work in the sale was an early-19th-century Hembigurea ancestor figure from the Congo, which fetched $1,042,109 above the high estimate of $619,150. This June marks the 50th anniversary of the Congo's independence.

Other top lots included a 42-inch carved female figure by a craftsman of the Inyai-Ewa People, which earned $685,133; the work had previously been in the collection of Douglas Newton, a former curator, who built The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Another crouching female figure that had been included in the first show of Oceanic art in the U.S., at Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in 1934, was sold for $476,897, a price that more than doubled the high estimate.

Oceanic art has inspired numerous modern masters such as Paul Klee, Alberto Giacometti, and Pablo Picasso. The sales in New York last month and Paris on Wednesday showed a continued global interest in collecting this category as they achieved strong prices far exceeding the estimates.

Source: artinfo.com
By: Louise Chen

Sotheby's African and Oceanic Auction - Rosenthal Collection

The African and Oceanic art collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal will be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on November 14^th, 2008.

As a collector and dealer of African art, we are always interested in seeing the choices that others have made when selecting art for their personal collections.

William C. Siegman writes in the Sotheby’s catalog that the Rosenthal’s collecting was stimulated by the opening of the Museum of Primitive Art in New York in 1957. We too, were stimulated by a New York museum show in 2001, the African Forms exhibit at the Museum for African Art. Struck by the beauty, refinement, master craftsmanship and sometimes deceptive simplicity of many of the non-figurative objects on display at that show, we began our specific focus on southern African art which is largely non-figurative.

Although the Rosenthal collection includes magnificent figurative objects such as the Senufo pair of Ancestor Figures, lot 63 or the Baga Male Figure, Lot 52, we cannot help but notice the collectors’ inclusion of utilitarian objects which they no doubt selected for their great beauty and extraordinary forms. Some beautiful forms collected by the Rosenthal's include:

A ceramic sculpture by contemporary artist Magdelene Odundo, Lot 1 (est. $10,000-$15,000)

Early Rurutu Chief’s Stool, Austral Islands, Lot 114 (est. $200,00-$300,000)

New Ireland friction drum, lot 91 (est $70,000-$100,000)

African and Oceanic non-figurative forms were clearly valued by sophisticated and careful collectors such as the Rosenthal’s.

The collection will be an interesting gauge of how the Tribal art markets fare at a time of deep distress in the financial markets. Particularly watched will be some very important objects including an important pair of Senufo ancestor figures (est. $3 million - $5 million), a Sepik Malu board (est. $600,000-$900,000) and a fine rapa nui figure from Easter Island (est. $250,000-$350,000)

Only one southern African art object is included in the sale, lot 43, a figurative staff described as South Nguni but more likely North Nuguni, possibly Tsonga.

Dori Rootenberg

Sotheby's African & Oceanic Auction - Paris December 5, 2007

On December 5, 2007 Sotheby's Paris has two auctions -
1) A single owner sale of 15 lots from Brian & Diane Leyden's great Bete & Senufo collection and
2) A sale of 158 lots from various owners.

I imagine the Leyden's are using the strong market for top material to lighten up on a few items and allow them to diversify their collection. The pieces are first rate and should do well.

Highlights of the single owner sale include a Benin plaque (est 150,000 - 250,000 EUR), a Cameroon Fon figure (est 250,000 - 350,000 EUR and pictured above , a Kwele mask (220,000 - 280,000 EUR) and a stunning squatting Bembe figure at 70,000 - 100,000 EUR (pictured above)

The sale features a handful of lots from South and East Africa (lots 95 - 104). Lot 99 comprises 12 Zulu spoons and was acquired in a small auction in South Africa 2 months ago. Lot 100 comprises 2 pipes and 2 snuffs including an interesting zoomorphic pipe. Lot 101 is a maternity figure, slightly stubby and not quite as elegant as the finest Baboon Master staffs, but authentic nevertheless and this is reflected in the estimate of 6,000-9,000 EUR. Lots 103 and 104 (illustrated above) are quite unusual Lozi walking sticks, probably made for resale, but attractive and nicely carved (est. 3,000-5,000 EUR and 4,000 - 6,000 EUR respectively).