Date: Fri 27-Nov-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: MARYG

Quick Words:

Sotheby's-African-Oceanic

Full Text:

Sotheby's African and Oceanic Art Auction Totals $6 Million

NEW YORK CITY -- Sotheby's sale of African and Oceanic brought a successful

$6,075,237 on November 22, including property from the foundation of Dr.

Edmund Muller, which totaled $1,578,025. Highlighting the auction was a

central patriarchal Maori wood figure (lot 162) from a European private

collection, a masterpiece of Pacific sculpture and one of the most important

Maori works of art in private hands, which sold for $1,102,500, a world record

price paid for Maori art at auction, and the highest price paid for any work

of Oceanic art. The figure was sold to an anonymous buyer bidding by

telephone.

Also featured in the sale was a superb Kongo figure (lot 328) which sold above

its high estimate for $1,432,500 to a European dealer bidding in the saleroom.

Additionally, property from the foundation of Dr. Edmund Muller, a

single-owner collection comprising 123 lots brought $1,578,025, and featured a

highly important Fang reliquary figure (lot 86) which sold for $442,500. Other

highlights featured property from the collection of Adelaide DeMenil,

including a rare Austral Islands necklace (lot 177) which more than quadrupled

its high estimate of $60,000 when it sold for $233,500 to a European dealer;

and a superb Maori bugle flute (lot 161) which brought $200,500 against an

estimate of $25/35,000.