RESULTS: African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art - May 16, 2008 SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK SPRING SALE OF
AFRICAN, OCEANIC & PRE-COLUMBIAN ART
ACHIEVES $10,165,325
News-Antique.com - May 30,2008 - SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK SPRING SALE OF
AFRICAN, OCEANIC & PRE-COLUMBIAN ART
ACHIEVES $10,165,325
A MAGNIFICENT AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT
BAGA SERPENT FROM THE DINHOFER COLLECTION
ACHIEVES $3,289,000
New York, New York, May 16, 2008 – The spring sale of African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art, featuring several
distinguished private collections, achieved a total of $10,165,325 (est. $4.7/6.7 million*). Today’s sales room was full,
with active bidding from clients both in the room and on the telephone.
Heinrich Schweizer, Department Head of African and Oceanic Art in New York, said, “We are extremely pleased
with today’s total of over $10 million, repeated for the second consecutive year for our various-owners sale of
African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art in New York. The results of today’s auction showed many works
achieving prices that are many multiple times their high estimates.”
Jean Fritts, Worldwide Director of African and Oceanic Art said, “Following the record results for this category in
New York in May of 2007, today’s sale shows that New York is an exceptional marketplace in which traditional
buyers of African and Oceanic Art compete with collectors of other categories of art. In today’s sale, we saw
significant crossover interest from collectors of Impressionist and Modern and Contemporary Art who entering the field at the very highest levels of quality, seeking to collect great masterpieces.”
The outstanding highlight of today’s sale was A Magnificent and Highly Important Baga Serpent, an impressive
sculptural object from The Republic of Guinea from The Dinhofer Collection. Bidding for the Baga Serpent continued
for several minutes, with competition from multiple clients before selling to applause for $3,289,000 (lot 58, est.
$1.5/2 million), setting a record for a Baga sculpture at auction. This monumental clan insignia was collected in
1957, just prior to the country’s independence, by art dealers Henri and Hélène Kamer. By 1961, the serpent was
sold by the Kamers to the gallery of one of the most important dealers of 20th century art: Pierre Matisse, the son of
Henri Matisse. In Matisse’s gallery on East 57th Street in New York, the Baga Serpent was exhibited alongside works
by Joan Miró and various group shows of contemporary artists including Wifredo Lam, Jean Dubuffet and Alberto
Giacometti. Specifically, the exhibition of the Baga Serpent in Matisse’s gallery may have had an influence on the
creation of Alexander Calder’s Short Lipped Snake from 1973. An additional highlight from The Dinhofer Collection was
A Superb Teke Male Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo, which sold to a bidder in the room
for $301,000 (lot 57, est. $100/150,000), setting a record for a Teke sculpture at auction. The Dinhofer Collection,
which consisted of lots 44 -75, totaled $3,950,000.
From The Walter and Molly Bareiss Collection of African Art, A Superb and Important Songye Community Power
Figure, collected in situ by Gaston Heenen, Governor of Katanga, before 1937, brought bids from at least four
interested clients in the room and on the phone, selling for $451,000 (lot 170, est. $250/350,000). Walter and Molly
Bareiss,
