Estimated for €2,000,000 - €3,000,000, the piece, described as a reliquary figure Nkundu 254 cm. (100 in) from Democratic
Republic of Congo was sold at Christie’s
Paris sales this week for
€2,697,000.
Observers
noted it was the world’s best
result for an African art piece in 2012. Christie disclosed “This masterpiece of Central African art formed one
of the key sculptures from the famous collection of the Belgian painter Jean
Willy Mestach for nearly 60 years.”
At the sales, which
featured about 20 other works of African origin, a total of €6m ($7,8m) was realized. Among the pieces sold
were A Fang head, from the Pierre Berès collection, formerly owned by Charles
Ratton and later by Félix Fénéon, fetched €385,000.
“The department is very pleased with the auction’s result, notably with
the presence of numerous international collectors, both personal and virtual.
We are particularly proud of the result obtained by the Nkundu reliquary” Susan
Kloman, International Head of Christie’s African and Oceanian art department
said.
A reliquary figure Nkundu 254 cm. (100 in) |
Provenance for Nkundu
The
sarcophagus of the Mestach collection was acquired in a Brussels antique shop,
after the 1940-45 war. It is very likely that this antiquarian is G. Dehondt.
The latter sold to the Musée de l'Homme in Paris the Nkundu sarcophagus efomba,
now in the Musée du Quai Branly under reference number 73.1992 .0.1.
In this
connection, Miss Huguette Van Geluwe from the Royal Museum for Central Africa
in Tervuren wrote to Mrs Delange, in a letter from November 19th 1970, that the
sarcophagus came from this well-known antique dealer and has been photographed
by R.F. Boelaert in 1940. She added that two other sarcophagi that are in the
Tervuren Museum were photographed before 1896 and published in the Annals of
the Tervuren Museum.(12) These anthropomorphic sarcophagi, acquired by the
Royal Museum for Central Africa, were collected in the late 19th century,
presented during the Brussels-Tervuren exhibition of 1897 and offered to the
Museum in 1893 after being collected by C. Lemaire in 1891.(13) The Willy
Mestach sarcophagus is stylistically and culturally related to this first
generation of sculptures, especially the anthropomorphic sarcophagus
benchmarked RMCA 42798. The latter, collected by Mr Stasse and offered to the
museum by his wife in 1909, presents this morphological correspondence and
analog designs (dark dye flecked with white dots). The comparison underlines
how the Mestach sarcophagus is by far the most remarkable, almost unique, and
of a rare plastic quality. It should be dated between 1890 and 1909.
(c/o Christie’s African and Oceanian art department.)
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