Tribal Art News no 3: Auction season fever, with new Pierre Loos and Hélène Leloup auctions and more…
29 April 2024
Auction season in full swing
The Tribal Art summer auction season is in full swing, with a veritable feast of auctions on offer at the moment. Besides the Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Bonham’s auctions ending in the next few days, two new major dealer auctions (Hélène Leloup and Pierre Loos) have just been announced as well as a couple of auctions from the smaller reputable auction houses. Pre-bidding at the Christie’s online auction is very active, and it already looks like it will be a very successful auction.
The sheer volume of high quality objects on offer at the moment has to be having an effect on dealers – feedback from Paris Tribal 2024 was that sales were to be had but that there were fewer visitors to the show than hoped and most customers seemed to be holding onto their wallets in anticipation of the Sotheby’s Chazal and Christie’s online auction in particular.
The dealer-auctioneer relationship in the Tribal Art space has always been a symbiotic one, and it seems curious that both Christie’s and Sotheby’s scheduled major auctions to coincide with Paris Tribal 2024, a move that surely hurt dealers?
Upcoming Tribal Art auctions
14 May 2024: Giquello – Galerie Hélène Leloup
Giquello auction house in Paris offers 63 objects from the collection of legendary dealer Hélène Leloup. Obviously Sotheby’s got the pick of her collection in their sale last year but this sale, with Bernard Dulon as the expert, still offers some fantastic works. If I had unlimited funds I would be bidding on Lot 53, an iconic Luba Mask (est €20000-€25000), but sure to exceed that estimate by a lot.
I also really like Lot 10, a powerful Eket gorilla mask (est €10000-€15000), and of course Lot 58, the massive and ancient Senufo deble (est €60000-€80000). The deble is 1.9 meters tall!
22 May 2024: Piasa – Pierre Loos, Universe of a Passion part 2
Piasa auction house offers 409 lots from the collection of dealer Pierre Loos on the 22nd May. This is the follow up to Pierre’s first sale in 2018, and coincides with his 75th birthday and the closure of his gallery. The auction features a mix of ethnographic and figurative works, the highlight of the auction has to be Lot 1, a huge, wonderful Bobo Mask (est €18000-€22000).
I share with Pierre a love and appreciation for tribal headrests, and he has a number of them listed in this auction, including some hard to find forms at low estimates. This auction is a great opportunity for a beginner collector to expand their collection with genuine objects.
7 May 2024: De Zwaan – Archaeology and Tribal Art
A mix of decent and not so decent works from Dutch auction house De Zwaan. Research is needed before bidding (as with any auction), but there is always something to find in these De Zwaan auctions. I do miss the days when they used to have really superb tribal auctions, I purchased a lot from them in the past.
20 May 2024: Arteprimitivo – Fine Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art #114
Howard Rose gallery’s new auction features the usual mix of Pre-Columbian, African and Oceanic art, with a strong emphasis on Pre-Columbian. On the tribal side, research is necessary before bidding as fakes do sometimes slip in, but like De Zwaan, there are always some lots that will attract your attention. It is also an auction house where there are normally good aftersale opportunities
Notable auction results
Easter Island moai moko fetches €325000
The great tangata moko from Easter Island that we previewed in the previous newsletter sold yesterday for €325000 including commission at Alexandre Landre, confirming the incredibly strong demand for objects from Rapanui at the top end of the auction market.
This tangata moko (or moai moko) originally appeared on auction as a sleeper lot in September last year at an opening estimate of €100 before being withdrawn. The final sale price represents a 3250 multiple on that original estimate, which has to be close to being a record for a tribal art lot at auction.
Useful Resources
Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology collections database
https://collections.maa.cam.ac.uk/objects/502884/The collections database for the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is a good resource for African and Oceanic ethnographic items, as well as antiquities, with over 80 000 photographed works. The collection is particularly strong on the oceanic side, with many rare early collected objects.
For example, this 18th century Maori taiaha fighting club, collected by Captain James Cook during his first voyage on the HMS Endeavour, is possibly the earliest taiaha ever collected.
All works are a licensed for use under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Other Art News
‘Luminous’ truck strap artwork by Maori artist collective wins prestigious Biennale prize in first for New Zealand. The installation, titled Takapau, and inspired by traditional Māori woven mats, consists of a 200 square meter canopy made from six kilometres of trucking straps and other industrial materials, reflecting the artists’ working-class roots.
Eleven people are being tried in a French court after being accused of manufacturing and dealing fake African artifacts. Fakes and fakery in the tribal art world is probably the biggest challenge facing the industry and it is good to see some action being taken. I do wonder what the difference is between these 11 people and some of the (unnamed for now) European auction houses that make their living by selling fakes to unsuspecting buyers. Surely they are two sides of the same coin.
Feedback
Any comments, auction results, articles or news to share? Please email me at hello@tribalartnews.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Have a great week!
Jaxon Rice
Johannesburg, South Africa.
