Rare Eskimo shaman mask sells for record-breaking $2.5 million
SOURCE: CNN (1-21-11)
Facial protrusions that look like hands; dangling sticks and feathers; a wide and mischievous grin: It's no wonder this rare Eskimo shaman's mask was so precious to the Surrealists.
And now a price has been put on the value of the Donati Studio Mask -- it was sold for over $2.5 million Thursday to a U.S. collector.
It breaks the previous record for indigenous U.S. art sold at public auction, said a spokesman for the Winter Antiques Show in New York, where the mask was sold.
A second mask sold for more than $2.1 million to another private buyer from the United States.
The late 19th century Donati Studio Mask was discarded by its original Yup'ik Eskimo maker once its part in a ritualistic dance was over. Surrealist painter and sculptor Enrico Donati added it to his collection in 1945.
The mask remains today one of the best-known and rarest shamanistic masks of the Yup'ik, an Alaskan indigenous people....
And now a price has been put on the value of the Donati Studio Mask -- it was sold for over $2.5 million Thursday to a U.S. collector.
It breaks the previous record for indigenous U.S. art sold at public auction, said a spokesman for the Winter Antiques Show in New York, where the mask was sold.
A second mask sold for more than $2.1 million to another private buyer from the United States.
The late 19th century Donati Studio Mask was discarded by its original Yup'ik Eskimo maker once its part in a ritualistic dance was over. Surrealist painter and sculptor Enrico Donati added it to his collection in 1945.
The mask remains today one of the best-known and rarest shamanistic masks of the Yup'ik, an Alaskan indigenous people....
Source:
CNN
Source URL:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/19/surreal.yupik.masks/index.html
Date:
1-21-11
