Ethnographica & Tribal Art

“The owner had no idea what they were or what they might be worth. Not a Scooby.”

One of New York’s most prolific antiquities collectors has surrendered 180 ‘looted’ items from his collection and been barred for life from acquiring antiquities again.

Non-European ethnographic art is a one of the new categories at Fine Arts Paris, represented by Patrick and Ondine Mesdagh from Brussels who will be showing a selection of pieces from four continents.

A Maori hei-tiki pendant offered in Cheltenham on September 16 had an old paper label verso stating that it originally belonged to Makoare Te Taonui.

A rare standing figure from the Yuat River area of Papua New Guinea was the star of the show at a Brussels auction.

Always a bonus for buyers is two fairs in the same venue on the same day.

Dealer and collector Kenn Mackay developed an interest in ethnographic art during his travels in the early 1980s.

Only a handful of companies have created products with sufficient impact that their brand names become generic descriptions for objects of their type.

“I have always been interested in stone,” says dealer Anthony Meyer.

Laurent Dodier is a longstanding exhibitor at Parcours des Mondes.

For its Parcours exhibition the Galerie Serge Schoffel from Brussels will be focusing on the Timoto-Cuica, a culture that flourished between 800-1200AD in the area that is now the Trujillo province in Venezuela.

Figures from the region that is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo will be the subject of the themed exhibition 'Kongo' that Galerie Lucas Ratton on the rue Bonaparte will be putting on for Parcours des Mondes.

Tribal Art London (TAL), the UK’s main fair dedicated to the collecting field, will be a virtual event this year.

Sotheby’s New York is holding an online auction from September 7-13 featuring 50 examples of sculpture from across the world’s continents selected from the longstanding collection of Martin and Faith-Dorian Wright.

Bonhams is holding a sale of Modern Native American Art in Los Angeles on August 30 that includes the collection of Canadian Inuit sculpture assembled by Wendy and Dr Les Fisher of Chicago.

The network of small streets in the left bank area of Saint Germain des Prés once again hosts a series of gallery exhibitions for the Parcours des Mondes.

The sale of Michel Périnet’s collection of tribal art at Christie’s in Paris on June 23 real ised a remarkable €66m/£57m (including buyer’s premium) and every one of the 61 lots were sold.

The best-performing lots in the tribal art sale at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury on June 8 were these two pieces: an Ibibio mask (idiok ekpo) sold at £30,000 and a Nicobar standing male figure (kareau) that brought £34,000.