Benin Ivory Armlet
Six years after the crash, ... David Norden
From:
Casey To: david@african-antiques.com Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2006 5:45 PM Subject: Benin
David,
I think I talked to you years ago on Yahoo about this Ivory Armlet. Probably back in 1999.. Since that time I lent it to the Smithsonian Institute for 6 months and I put it up for auction at Sotheby's in Nov. 2000. If you have the catalogue it's number 96. I turned down a bid of $47,500.00 from the auction. It was estimated to bring between $60,000.00 & $90,000.00. I think the price was low because of the stock market crash in 2000.
In any case I didn't sell it and I put it on loan to be displayed at the North Carolina Museum of Art for 18 months. Since then it's been locked away in a bank vault. With my granddaughter getting ready to start college next year, I thought it would be a good time to try and sell it to help with her tuition. That's very expensive to say the least!
If you have Sotheby's Nov. 2000 catalogue, you can read the review there. If not, I can email it to you. Maybe you know someone who might be interested in this piece or you may be interested yourself. If nothing else, with your knowledge of African Art, maybe you can add to the research that's already been done.
Thank you for your time. Casey
Images and documents about the Benin Ivory
Sothebys catalogue scan :
Marc Ginzberg invitation with detail from Ivory on the side:
Benin Ivory Yoruba Owo detail images :
+32
3 227.35.40, 