Dream Piece #2—Lower Sepik Mask, Parke-Bernet Auction, New York, 27 January 1968, Lot 57
Lower Sepik Mask
Parke-Bernet Auction, New York
27 January 1968
This archaic Lower Sepik mask was part of the Allan Frumkin Collection that sold at the Parke Bernet Auction in New York on January 27th, 1968. Prior to that it was in the famous Werner Munsterberger Collection, the psychoanalyst of celebrities such as James Dean.
Relatively small at 9 ¾” and with eyes not pierced through suggests this might have been a mask attached to a canoe shield as opposed to an actual dance mask—as the catalog description assumed. The smooth naturalism places the mask along the Lower Sepik River. There is a simple clarity to the composition with deeply carved coffee bean eyes surrounded by a raised oval underneath similarly shaped brows. The nose is in high relief with large open nostrils. The mouth is cut through and agape—as if in the process of breathing. There is a glossy aged patina and layers of flaking pigments—both signs of a prolonged ritual life. Just a gorgeous old jewel-like Sepik mask.
The mask sold at Parke-Bernet New York on January 27th, 1968 for $850 which in today’s dollars amounts to $6911—A BARGAIN!
