A Highly Important Benin Bronze Head of an Oba (est. $1/1.5 million)

NEW YORK.- On May 17, 2007, Sotheby’s New York will hold its various-owners sale of African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art, a historically rich offering including traditional and ceremonial works of art ranging from Nigerian and Central African to Mexican and Peruvian. Property from the sale will be on exhibition in Sotheby’s 5th floor galleries from May 12th through the 16th, and the approximately 140 lots are expected to bring $3.8/5.7 million.
Highlighting Sotheby’s various-owners sale will be African and Pre-Columbian sculptures from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, including a Highly Important Benin Bronze Head of an Oba (est. $1/1.5 million), the most important Benin work to appear at auction for 30 years. This work features signature royal adornments and displays a hole on the top that was designed to receive and support a finely carved elephant’s tusk, a symbol of the wealth and power of the king of Benin’s lineage. The Albright-Knox oba head is one of the finest and oldest examples of its kind, dating to circa 1575-1625, the time period in which the best Benin metal castings were produced. Only a very few Benin sculptures of comparable importance have survived until the present day. The head was acquired in 1932 by the French dealer Louis Carré, with the assistance of Charles Ratton before the then-still Albright Art Gallery purchased it on December 31, 1935. Lire la suite http://www.artdaily.com/section/news/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=19802