a $36,000 tiki pendant

A few weeks ago, the Sotheby's Auction House (sort of like ebay for high rollers) featured a sale of various museum quality Oceanic art pieces.

Among the items sold was this cool Maori pendant, which sold for $36,000.
http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08095&live_lot_id=2&go.x=16&go.y=5

Even more impressive, from the historical standpoint, was this Hawaiian lei, most likely collected in the 1700's, which sold for $72,000.
http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?sale_number=N08095&live_lot_id=15

Also very cool was this mask carving...
http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/lot/LotDetail.jsp?lot_id=4F7M3

Items 1-22 of this auction, which I encourage you to browse through, featured Oceanic items - the higher numbers were for African and Pre-Columbian art.

And for those of you who feel like you missed out on a grand opportunity to bid on these pieces, there is another Oceanic auction happening in Paris on June 6th. To view these items, go to the following link and click the 'browse catalog' link on the right-hand side.

http://search.sothebys.com/jsps/live/event/EventDetail.jsp?event_id=27129

Have a fun time bidding!!

Vern

Very nice. I don't think my student budget will stretch that far though. Pity.

the mask from new ireland look like it depicts a native of old ireland after too much jameson's...

I can get you one of these for about $75... Maybe not as old...

I am going to Paris this weekend, o wait thats Paris Las Vegas. I am waiting for the acution of Marlon Brando's estate. I heard he had some good Tahitian artifacts that will be auctioned off.

On 2005-06-02 06:34, Swanky wrote:
I can get you one of these for about $75... Maybe not as old...

Does anyone know at what point Oceanic masks (and other artifacts) stop being cool $75 Tiki room decorations and start being a down payment on a new house? I assume it's not just based on age (obv. quality has a major part in it too). What else? The fact that it's appeared in a museum?

I bought a Sepik mask a while ago, just for decorative purposes, but it is certainly old (the feathers look ancient & there's some dust of many decades on it) and the seller said it was brought over back in the 19th century. I bought it very cheaply, so nobody would have gone to that much trouble to fake it's age.

Am I rich? Just kidding - I just see a lot of Oceanic stuff here and there and find it very difficult to price. A lot of stuff is obviously cheap tourist knock-off junk (still great for the bar), but other is just impossible to guess the age & value of. Any pros out there know what makes one piece worth vastly more than another?

Trader Woody

On 2005-06-02 03:55, Johnny Dollar wrote:
the mask from new ireland look like it depicts a native of old ireland after too much jameson's...

Hey! I resemble that remark. Nyuk nyuk