By Carter B. Horsley
The Fall 2008 auction of African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art at Sotheby's is the spectacular and very important collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal who lived in Westchester County and bought many masterpieces from Helena Rubenstein, Nelson Rockefeller John J. Klejman.
The auction was extremely successful with 117 of 118 offered works selling for $10,859,944.
Lot 94 is a highly stylized and scrawny but "magnificent "Rapa Nui" male figure from Easter Island that is 16 1/2 inches high. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $614,500, including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article, an auction record for an Easter Island sculpture.
Lot 56 is an "important" Fang male reliquary figure from Gabon that is 20 3/8 inches high. The work was once in the collections of Paul Tishman of New York and John J. Klejman of New York. It has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $266,500. The work is notable for the breadth of the figure's shoulders and the rings around his legs.
Lot 60 is a "superb and rare Boyo male ancestor figure" from the Democratic Republic on the Congo. It is 23 3/4 inches high and was once in the collection of John J. Klejman of New York. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. It sold for $530,300.
The cover illustration of the catalogue is Lot 63, a "magnificent and highly important" Senufo pair of male and female ancestor figures from the Ivory Coast. The male figure is 45 5/8 inches high. The pair was previously in the collections of John J. Klejman of New York, Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York and The Museum of Primitive Art in New York and had been sold in 1967 at Parke Bernet Galleries in New York. The lot has been widely published and exhibited and has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000. It sold for $4,002,500, an auction record for a Senufo sculpture.
Lot 32 is a superb Yoruba Gelede headdress from Nigeria that is 14 1/4 inches high. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $31,250.
In an essay on the lot in the catalogue, John Pemberton III, Crosby Professor of Religion, Emeritus, at Amherst College, provides the following commentary:
"This splendid carving for an efelgelede masquerade is one of five sculpted in the late 19th or early 20th century by an unknown carver in the Anago area of southwest Yorubaland, on the order with the Republic of Benin.....As in all gelede headdresses, there is a basic contrast between the composed face and the drama of the superstructure. The hand of this master carver, however, is initially suggested by the angular definition of the ear, similar to, but more severe than, that employed by other Anago and Egbado carvers. Far more distinctive our artists's hard are the rows of tiny triangles carved across the the brow and occassionally down the side of the face, although they appear on only three of the four carvings noted above. The faces of all five carvings are remarkably similar, with narrow almond-shaped eyes, and a slender nose and slightly open mouth. ...The head tie is a strip of brightly cloroed cloth which women fashion in a variety of shapes.,They are visually fascinating, but they also elicit responses by men conveying their ambivalence about women."
Lot 170 is described in the catalogue as a "superb and highly important Songye Community power figure" from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is 35 inches high and has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $451,000. The work was collected in situ by Gaston Heenen, Governor of Katanga, before 1937 and was included in the 1999 exhibition at the University of Iowa Museum of Art exhibition, "Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection." It was once in the collection of Helena Rubenstein.
The catalogue provides the following commentary:
"In 1937 the City of Antwerp invited Frans Olbrechts, the noted African art scholar, to organise a large scale exhibition of Congolese art. The show Tentoonstelling van Kongo-Kunst gathered 1525 objects from the Belgian Congo alongside a selection of contemporary art "inspired by the Congo" as well as a significant number of historical documents attesting to Antwerp's rank as 'the first African colonial market'....The show became not only a monument to Olbrechts but also a landmark for museum history. While Olbrecht's desire to present the objects as art and not ethnographical material followed the approach of other major exhibitions of African art during the 1930s, his scientific method of classification, which was based on stylistic, rather than ethnic or geographic differences, represented a significant departure from earlier attempts at classification. Olbrechts implemented this new system in both the show and in his brief essay for the exhibition catalogue, which presents many ideas later elaborated in his influential Plastiek van Kongo....The Antwerp exhibition sourced primarily from the large collection of Congolese art in Antwerp's Vleeschhuis-Museum, home to no fewer than 1600 Congolese objects which the City had acquired from Henri Pareyn in 1920. However, the display also borrowed a large number of objects from private collectors, an important change from the approach of previous exhibitions. As Olbrechts notes, this allowed to 'bring to light many completely unknown objects'....Two of these "completely unknown objects" are today venerated as great masterpieces of Songye sculpture, and both were lent by Gaston Heenen: the community power figure now in the Mestach Collection....and the present lot. Born in 1880, Gaston Heenen joined the Belgian colonial government in the Congo in 1911, and over the course of the next 20 years established himself as one of the most prominent figures in the administration of the Congo. Heenen spent most of his time in the province of Katanga, and from 1922 onwards became perhaps the dominant figure in the life of the province for almost a decade, serving as Vice Governor General from May 1928 - September 1931, and from January 1932 - September 1933. Noted for following liberal policies which often ran counter to those advocated by the central administration in Léopoldville, Heenen was interested in the history and culture of Congo's native tribes, and formed an extensive collection of Congolese art during his time in Katanga, as well as writing a history of the Luba people....Roy...notes: 'This is a large and impressive example of a very public nkishi power figure that once served to protect an entire community. To the wooden figure have been added elaborate strips of copper on the face, buttocks and abdomen; several collars of snakeskin and lizard hide containing magical materials; a strand of costly blue Dutch beads and iron points, which form the regalia of a chief and reflect the status of the figure; a large horn container for magical materials; and a wooden, club-shaped object which must represent a weapon. The major container for the bashimba medicine is a large recess carved in the abdomen and sealed with a copper plate. The figure is in the Kalebwe style, from the central part of the Songye country. Its size indicates that it was a community figure.'"
Lot 181 is described as a "fine and rare Kaguru Throne" by Tanzania. It is 45 5/8 inches high and has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $37,000. The catalogue describes "it as rising from four interlinked legs with openwork design, the circular seat with a rectangular backrest decorated on the reverse with intricately carved geometric design in relief, surmounted by a human torso with spherical head and crested coiffure; metal pegs inserted into base; fine, aged varied brown patina." It also was exhibited at the University of Iowa Museum of Art in the 1999 exhibition "Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection." It was belongedto Eliot Elisofon, the photographer.
Lot 45 is a fine Dogon crouching figure with an encrusted brown patina. It is 6 1/2 inches high and was once in the collection of John J. Klejman of New York. It has a conservative estimate of $6,000 to $9,000. It sold for $23,750.
Lot 64 is an impressive and large and "magnificent" ancestoral malu board from East Sepik River, Sawos, Papua,New Guinea. It is6 feet 10 inches high. It has an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. It sold for $1,314,500.
Lot 69 is a superb Kerewa skull rack from Goaribari Island in Papua New Guinea. It is 44 1/4 inches high and was once in the collection of John J. Klejman of New York. According to the catalogue entry, "the skulls were outfitted with rattan and then suspended by the central vertical elements inside the figure's body," adding that in the early 1900s, agiba had been observed with between fifty to sity skulls attached." It has an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $98,500.
Lot 82 is a superb Massim lime spatula from the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea. It is 12 3/4 inches high and was once in the collection of Mathias Komor of New York. The very highly stylized spatula has a modest estimate of $10,000 to $15,000. It sold for $68,500.
Lot 115 is a superb and interesting staff finial from the Austral Islands in French Polynesia. It is 18 1/8 inches high and was formerly in the collections of John J. Klejman of New York, Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York and the Museum of Priitive Art in New York. It has an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $146,500.