African Art Club

EDITORIAL NOTE: A few pieces but strong selection  and known provenance with a twist of well selected tribes and clients that are educated to get the best quality at the highest prices, these seem to be the rules for success of Sothebys. David Norden

PARIS— 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.

A detail of the 19th-century Hembigurea ancestor figure from the Congo that sold for $1,042,109:

more images, details etc ..:

During the Afrika / Tribal Art auction from Lempertz in Brussels a mask was sold for 370,000€ without costs, the other objects where at more reasonable prices, but for exceptional pieces the market is still willing to pay top prices.

Carl Ferdinand Schaedler auction results

the auction of Carl Ferdinand Schaedler held at NEUMEISTER Münchener Kunstauktionshaus 14 Oktober 2009
total of the sold lots: 423,200 € without costs
14% of sold lots:  47 lots sold from the 663 offered.
average price of the sold lots is 9004 €

I liked the quality of this auction

You can download the price result list

Carl Ferdinand Schaedler Auction Results

I guess that Mr Schaedler will be happy with the amount of money he will receive, but I guess it was not his ideato go back home with 86 % of his pieces.

Some of the top quality pieces found a new home, and also the cheapest priced items (that probably where sold without a limit price)
see some images from the highest results and auction house details, and a link to the online catalog with images from all the lots,  below in the members section

During on of the last auction in Paris this Dan spoon with a perfect  provenance caught my eye:

So why does this spoon have a perfect provenance ?

Lot 54 at Van Ham in Germany auctions sold for 105,000 € in June 2009 on an a high estimate of 15,000 € Most items did not sold, but this one was a good exception.

Female Kifwebe Mask. Songye, Democratic Republic of Congo. Wood, pigments and raffia. The grooved concave face with a protruding un-pierced mouth beneath a broad nose and slit-like crescent eyes. The blackened triangular nose continuing as a band at the centre of the convex forehead, the face carved all over with curving parallel grooves painted and repainted with different colours. The original raffia costume is attached to the pierced rim of the mask. Height 44cm. Cf. Dunja Hersak: Songye Masks and Figure Sculpture. 1985.

Preise

Schätzpreis: 13.000 – 15.000 € Limitpreis:   Verkaufspreis: 105.000 € Datum: 06/2009

Complete result list: