125 AUCTIONS
Important sculpture works from the George Terasaki Collection will be offered at Sotheby’s in New York City.
Major works coming up for sale at the most important auction houses dealing in Native American art, and results of recent auctions.
Important sculpture works from the George Terasaki Collection will be offered at Sotheby’s in New York City.
NEW YORK, NY
When a Native American artwork or artifact fell into the hands of George Terasaki it was acknowledged to be the best of the best. His careful eye sought out top-quality pieces that told stories about the artists and their subjects. When he passed away in 2010, his legacy for important Native American objects internationally recognized.
On November 19 in New York City, Sotheby’s will auction off 80 one-of-a-kind works of art from the Terasaki Collection. The bulk of the sale will include sculpture, though there will also be a small selection of baskets and ceramics, almost all from the Pueblo cultures of the Southwest and the Northwest Coast.
“George Terasaki is a legendary figure in this field, and his name is synonymous with sculptures and objects of great power and artistic quality,” says Paul Lewis, a specialist in the African & Oceanic Art department
at Sotheby’s. “The collection is an illustration of his famously rigorous taste and sensitive ‘eye,’ and his unstinting search for the best. The collection contains many objects which George treasured across the decades, having acquired them at a time when Native American art was greatly undervalued.”
Lots include two Hopi katsina figures: one depicting Sotuknangu from around 1880 (est. $20/30,000), which is massive at nearly 20 inches tall, and another showing Mosairu (est. $20/30,000) from around the same time. From the Northwest comes a Tsimshian raven rattle (est. $100/150,000), from around 1790 to 1820, which Lewis calls exquisite.
Potential showstoppers will be a pair of Northwest Coast lions that are attributed to the Haida from around 1830 to 1860. The lions are estimated at $350,000 to $450,000. “Several compelling sculptures in museum collections (such as a Haida sculpture of a sphinx in the British Museum) illustrate this enthralling history, but very few major works exist in private hands, and certainly none to rival this imposing pair of sculptures of almost life-size,” Lewis says. “Their poignant and enigmatic expressions are highly striking, and the sculptor evidently took care to convey a sense of motion in these strong and curious objects. Their estimate—as is the case throughout the auction—is conservative, considering their age, sculptural quality and rarity.”
Two additional rare and important lots are a Chugach Sugpiaq mask from the 18th century or earlier, estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, as well as an Eskimo mask possibly from St. Lawrence Island around 1650, which is estimated at $70,000 to $100,000. Lewis says, “From further north, there is an incredibly dramatic and powerful Chugach mask, and a great and deeply imaginative Eskimo mask of animalistic form—this was one of the last objects George acquired, bought at Sotheby’s New York in 2008.”
James Trotta-bono, whose family worked with Terasaki extensively before he died, refers to the collector as a mentor who greatly shaped how he appreciates and collects Native American objects. “George was a visionary. His eye was regarded in the industry as one of the best. George was seeking the top of any given category. When he was looking at a piece he wouldn’t even touch it unless the work spoke to him,” says Trotta-bono, who is a consultant with Schweizer Premodern, which is collaborating with Sotheby’s for the sale. “It’s rare to have such confidence in one’s eyes, to have such clarity of vision. George was himself an artist. Between this highly refined aesthetic and a deep knowledge, he understood the material culture. George Terasaki helped elevate the material out of the realm of ethnography and into the realm of fine art.”